The Alaska Miner Winter 2024 34 Presented by Graham Neale AMA’s Hard Hat Safety Award honors a group or person active in AMA who demonstrates an exemplary commitment to safety. The award recipient has demonstrated the highest safety standards, communication of safety policies and training, and have an exemplary record of incident-free days, hours, or other milestones. This company places great value on the safety and health of its workforce. The goal is to reduce safety incidents and improve upon the previous year’s performance through a proactive incident management program, including hazard and near miss reporting, incident investigations, and corrective action implementation. The company believes in hiring the best people, providing them with the best training and the best supervisors, and empowering every employee and contractor to be personally responsible for safety — even if that means stopping a job or speaking up to a supervisor. This operation implements several programs designed to raise awareness of its safety culture and help employees develop skills that enable them to perform their work in a safe and healthy way. These programs include the “Take 5 Safety Focus” program, which fosters continuous improvement by improving job site awareness and decreasing exposure to high and critical risk activities at each job site. The program standards are designed to exceed industry best practices and comply with or exceed Mine Safety & Health Administration (MSHA) regulations. In 2017, they became the first hard rock mine to be independently certified under the National Mining Association’s CORESafety® system. This operation tracks safety performance including its AllInjury Frequency Rate (AIFR), near misses, job observations, equipment damages, and training hours, with a goal of reducing safety incidents and improving upon the previous year’s performance. Since 2018, the mine’s AIFR has declined by 82.4%. Their current AIFR is .39, well below the national average for underground mines of 2.50. The mine has further reduced AIFR this year by more than 38% and is 52% below its 2023 target AIFR of .81. To ensure worker safety, they have introduced nine high-risk safety rules as zero-tolerance items, which may lead to termination if violated. The Zero Tolerance Standard now covers drug and alcohol violations, unauthorized use of equipment, never removing/ bypassing/tampering with safety devices, seatbelts, isolation of hazardous energy, restricted areas, unsupported ground and suspended loads, explosive handling, and working at heights. In Q3 2023, 94 supervisors and leads participated in a two-day safety leadership course to develop and improve their safety related skills and provide additional tools to manage the safety performance of their direct reports. This operation offers health and wellness programs on top of the comprehensive health insurance benefits. The corporation maintains a wellness website that provides a central location to promote overall wellness and disease prevention. In 2022, the company focused on suicide prevention with in-person training and lists of local agencies and support groups. This remote mine is primarily accessed by boat. It consists of the underground mine, an ore concentrating mill, tailings facility, a ship-loading facility, camp facilities, and a ferry dock. It has 521 employees and nearly 100 contractors and operates 24 hours/ day, 365 days/year. It is my honor to present the 2023 Hard Hat Safety Award to Hecla Greens Creek Mine. Hecla Mining Company, Hard Hat Safety Award
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTcxMjMwNg==