SPL21 PREVENTION CULTURE IN THE MINING INDUSTRY: A FEMALE PERSPECTIVE FROM THE AFRICAN REGION
Authors: Balfour Thuthula 
Published: July 2024

Mining is growing exponentially in Africa and will increase more into the future. The continent hosts about 30% of the world’s total mineral reserves and is a key source of critical minerals that are essential for batteries, solar panels and other green tech that will underpin the energy transition from fossil fuels to renewables.

As an extractive industry, mining has significant hazards that lead to occupational injuries and diseases. The industry currently has high rates of injuries and fatalities, noise induced hearing loss and occupational lung diseases, including TB. Mechanisation and modernisation in the industry can reduce incidents and improve health and safety.

There is a paucity of information on occupational injuries and almost no information on occupational diseases in Africa. Data on injuries and diseases is crucial if Africa is to make any progress in preventing these. An initiative to improve reporting on OHS in South Africa detailed the collaboration required across multiple departments and entities and the technical and financial inputs that would be required.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) states that a key element for OHS management is promoting a culture of prevention within the enterprise. Prevention is universally recognised as a more cost-effective way of improving OHS as it addresses root causes. Root cause analysis is based on the principle that it is much more effective to systematically prevent and solve for underlying issues than to manage outcomes.

The presentation will cover the use of root cause and bowtie analyses for occupational hygiene exposures and diseases. It will share how the implementation of the tripartite Mine Health and Safety Council (MHSC) targets on reducing exposures to silica and coal dust and screening for TB and HIV led to reductions in these hazards and diseases for the reporting period 2016 to 2022. The Tuberculosis in the Mining Sector in Southern Africa (TIMS) Project is an example of prevention initiatives for reducing occupational TB and other occupational lung diseases.

More women are entering the industry and in some countries they account for 15% of employees in the formal mining sector. The specific needs and risks for women need to be considered in crafting and designing any occupational health and safety (OHS) policies and interventions. OHS programmes should cater for suitable physical environments, safe and appropriate personal protective equipment for women while health programmes should focus on women’s health, including their susceptibility to HIV infection, mental health disorders and preventable cancers. Gender based violence, femicide and harassment are realities in the mining industry and work done by the MHSC, the Minerals Council South Africa and individual companies in South Africa will be showcased.

In artisanal and small-scale mining women participation is between 20-50% and they are uniquely exposed to a multiplicity of OHS hazards due to anatomical, physiological and socioeconomic factors. African countries have to do more to ensure a gendered approach to OHS.

OHS in Africa can improve if it is founded on a preventive culture and there is collection of gendered data to monitor progress.