Debswana safety team tours BCL mine
Onalenna Kelebeile | Friday July 29, 2016 15:51
Mmegi is privy to the details that the presence of the Debswana safety managers is to assist BCL management identify where things have been going wrong at the oldest and fatality-prone copper/nickel mine.
Besides the four miners who perished recently when a rope snapped while a cage was transporting workers at end of shift, in the past two years (2014/15) the BCL mine has recorded the highest number of fatalities in the sector with 11 deaths.
According to a special management brief that BCL managing director Daniel Mahupela issued to employees recently, there has been an improvement on the mine’s safety performance as there has been no reportable incident in the last four weeks across all the mine operations.
He further stated that following the South East Extension fatal accident recently, the shaft remains closed pending completion of repair work that has commenced.
“Investigations have also been completed by BCL, Department of Mines Inspectorate and RSV Group. The laboratory tests and analysis on the failed rope sample have also been completed and a comprehensive report is due,” he stated.
The mine’s public relations and marketing manager, James Molosankwe could not be drawn into discussing the Debswana engagement further than the management brief.
Botswana Mine Workers Union (BMWU) has hailed the latest development as a welcome move, but coming too late when the mine is already in a bad shape. The union’s president, Jack Tlhagale said in a telephone interview that it is unfortunate that the intervention came too late because management has been claiming to be doing things right and refusing to take advice.
“They are now doing it when many lives have been lost. The fact that experts have been roped in is an admission on the part of BCL that they are doing something wrong as management. They have to admit that had they done this earlier they could have saved many lives and prevented many injuries,” Tlhagale said.
He added that a major intervention is necessary by government to turn around the mine both in safety and economic terms.
Meanwhile contrary to the mine’s position that BMWU is part of the collaborative effort, the union said it has declined to be part of the team. Tlhagale said they declined because they do not know the terms and reference of the whole exercise hence it questions the credibility of the management whether they are doing this for a good reason or not.
In fact, the union has written to management seeking clarification on the purpose of this safety improvement initiative in relation to why the union was excluded from preparations while it is a member of the Joint Negotiation Council (JNC).
The union also wants to know the specific role that it should play in the exercise and the terms of reference for the exercise as they say to date they have not been served with any communication.
They also want to know how the outcome or the report of the exercise will be used.
“We would also like to know how the current exercise is different from the normal JNC SHE interventions. We are still yet to receive feedback from the mine,” said Tlhagale.
Meanwhile, BCL continues to experience below budget production and employees have been encouraged to do their best to turn this around and ensure the survival of the business. The financial situation of the company continues to be in significant strain on account of adverse commodity prices.
The mine has not been receiving concentrate from Nkomati since the beginning of this month due to a 10-day strike and operational challenges the mine is currently experiencing. Mahupela said in his correspondence that as a result they have been unable to meet the minimum volume requirements to the smelter.
“We therefore took a decision to restart the operation at Tati Nickel Mining Company to mitigate the inadequate supply of concentrate to the smelter. BCL trucks and operators have been dispatched to Tati to feed ore stockpiles to the concentrator at Tati,” he added.
He further said the revival of Tati operations is important to meet the minimum requirements of the smelter pending the opening of Selkirk Mine in 2017. He said the BCL smelter has already started receiving old stockpile concentrate from Tati and fresh concentrate is expected this week.