The safety journey of South Africa’s mining industry — which has seen over 80,000 miners killed since it reached an industrial scale in the late 19th century — has reached another milestone.

“There have been no fatalities at our operations in the past 27 months, which is our longest fatality-free period,” platinum group metals (PGM) producer Amplats said in its quarterly production report on Tuesday.

For most companies, going over two years without an employee being killed on the job would not be much of an achievement.

But like most of South Africa’s major mining companies, notably in the PGM and gold sectors, Amplats once had a dismal safety record which it has made intensely focused efforts to address.

The noble goal of “zero harm” remains elusive, but South Africa’s deep and dangerous mines are no longer the death traps that for decades maimed and mangled an overwhelmingly black and migrant labour force that was ruthlessly exploited under apartheid.

In 2003, 270 miners were killed at work in accidents in South Africa’s mining sector. In 2022, a record low of 49 fatalities was reached — still almost one a week. In 2023, there was a regression to 54.

In the case of Amplats, the company under former CEO Chris Griffith made a hard pivot over a decade ago to mechanised operations. When Griffith took over in 2012 — reportedly because his predecessor had been fired over his safety record — seven Amplats employees died on the job that year.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Safety First: Gold Fields a natural destination for new CEO Chris Griffith

Mechanisation and automation involve machines carrying out tasks that human miners once did in highly dangerous circumstances, such as drilling and bolting. Digital initiatives also hold out huge promise on the safety front.

For Amplats, the swing to mechanisation — driven in part by the concerns of investors who don’t want their returns drenched in blood — has paid huge safety dividends. In 2019, the company had its first fatality-free calendar year.

Griffith’s successors, Natascha Viljoen and current CEO Craig Miller, have maintained this relentless focus on safety.

And Miller and Amplats are hardly declaring mission accomplished. Indeed, Amplats noted a regression in its total recordable case frequency rate (TRCFR), a measure of injuries per hours worked.

“Total recordable case frequency rate (TRCFR) was similar to Q4 2023 at 1.88 per million hours; however, it regressed 7% compared to the prior period of 1.75 per million hours … We are continuing with the focused implementation of our safety practices to ensure that each of our colleagues returns home safely every day,” Amplats said.

Mining disasters, such as the tragedy that saw 13 Impala Platinum employees killed in November of last year when the conveyance lift taking miners to the surface suddenly reversed course into a rapid and fatal descent, grab much of the attention.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Implats disaster another mining tragedy for the people of Eastern Cape and Lesotho

But a story need not bleed to lead.

South Africa’s mining sector is becoming safer — in the face of arduous geological conditions — and that’s also a tale worthy of public attention and scrutiny. DM