MINE SAFETY, FIRST AID COMPETITION HELD (PAGE 20)

THIS year’s Zone Two mine safety and first aid competition, involving five mining companies in the country, has taken place at the Newmont Ghana Gold Limited (NGGL) plant site at Kenyasi in the Brong Ahafo Region.
Central African Gold Company Limited at Bibiani in the Western Region emerged the champions with 64.3 points.
The other companies that participated in the oral safety and first aid test quiz, as well as practical safety and first aid test, were AngloGold Ashanti at Obuasi, which placed second with 62.5 points, NGGL came third with 62 points, Chirano Mines at Chirano in the Bibiani-Anhwiaso-Bekwai District in the Western Region followed with 51.8 points while Ghana Bauxite Company at Awaso placed fifth with 49.6 points.
Central African Gold and AshantiGold have thus qualified to participate in the national contest, which has an overall aim of bringing together mining companies and community representatives towards creating safety and first aid awareness among themselves.
For the community representative competition, NGGL community team scored 72 points to emerge winners followed by Chirano with 70 points and Central African Gold community placing third with 69 points. The first two teams have, therefore, qualified to compete in the national event. All the teams that participated were presented with prizes and certificates.
Speaking at the function, the General Manager, Environment and Social Responsibility of NGGL, Mr Dan Michaelsen, dismissed the perception by a section of the people that mining companies cared little about the safety of human life and the environment.
He explained that mining companies had a great deal of responsibility to ensure that their activities were carried out under the safest possible conditions and with minimum negative impact on the environment, adding, “This responsibility extends not only to employees, but also to communities in which we operate.”
Mr Michaelsen further explained that the ever-increasing global awareness about workplace safety and the environment had led to a corresponding increase in public expectation for extractive industries to be responsible in their activities.
The general manager stressed that it was precisely the growing attention of the public and other stakeholders that had spawned many of the safety and environmental initiatives that modern mining companies now supported, adding that one of such initiatives was the zonal safety and first aid competition.
He observed that it was within the context of self-regulation that the Ghana Chamber of Mines in partnership with other stakeholders instituted the mine safety competition to celebrate and reinforce the safety values now demonstrated by the mining industry and their communities.
Mr Michaelsen expressed satisfaction about the community involvement in the programme because it emphasised the fact that safety was as important to communities as it was for the mining companies and that his company was proud to host the competition for the first time at a cost of GH¢50,000.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, Ms Joyce R. Aryee, in a speech read on his behalf, stated that the lack of indigenous blasting standards that suited local conditions had been a major concern for the mining industry.
The industry, she said, had to rely on standards from other countries, such as Australia and the United States of America.
To address this concern, Miss Aryee said, the Chamber in collaboration with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Inspectorate Division of the Minerals Commission, had obtained the support of the Mining Sector Support Programme (MSSP) of the European Union to conduct a study to establish the requisite standards that were relevant for the country.