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Safety

At MMG, safety is at the core of everything we do. It is our first value. We are working hard to embed a Company-wide safety mindset with supporting leadership, behaviours, cultures and processes in every area of our business. We have identified four key elements in developing an organisational culture with a strong and effective focus on safety, which include: 

  1. Leadership and culture, with sites aligned to common MMG leadership attributes.  
  2. Elimination of fatalities (low-probability, high consequence events) consistent with the requirements of our Fatal Risk Standard and site-specific fatal/material risks.  
  3. Prevention of injuries (high-probability events) consistent with the requirements of our Safety, Security, Health and Environment (SSHE) Performance Standard.  
  4. Application of learnings from incidents in line with the requirements of our internal Risk Management standard. 

Safety is MMG’s first value. Our approach is based on avoiding harm to our people. We are committed to continuous improvement in our approach to managing safety. Through our Safety Leadership Program, we strive to develop a culture where safety leadership is supported through:  

  • a commitment to caring for each other and living our values;  
  • building safety capability and commitment in MMG people;  
  • training our people to be competent in all their tasks;  
  • enabling our frontline leaders to effectively implement MMG standards and processes; and  
  • continually supporting and enabling safe behaviour. 

Safe task management  

Our SSHE Performance Standard defines the requirements for conducting work safely, with a particular focus on ensuring our people are trained and competent in identifying and managing hazards and completing tasks safely. we place a strong emphasis on understanding the opportunities identified through field time observations, in addition to visible leadership in the field. As well as the implementation of the SSHE Performance Standard, our focus is on the understanding and implementation of the Safe Task Management elements including safe environmental conditions, people and resource availability, the authorisation of all permits, and assignment of tasks to those with skills and the capability to complete the work safely.  

All workplace hazards are identified and managed through procedures, work instructions and Task Hazard Analysis (THA) and verified for the effectiveness of task allocation through Field Task Observations (FTO). Sites follow a predefined FTO schedule and identify improvement opportunities from FTO findings. Our people are empowered to stop a task and advise a supervisor if the task cannot be carried out safely, or, to intervene to protect the health or wellbeing of everyone or the environment in which they work. 

Fatal risk management  

MMG’s Fatal Risk Standard and Risk Management Standard describe the minimum requirements for the identification, assessment and mitigation of specific fatal risks. These risks have been identified across all our operations, and we work continuously to ensure all MMG people are aware of the risks – and the controls that should be in place to manage them. We manage all our material risks using our Risk Management System. The 12 fatal risks identified across MMG are:  

  • Aviation  
  • Carcinogens  
  • Clearance to work, isolations and permits  
  • Explosives and blasting  
  • Ground control  
  • Guarding  
  • Hazardous materials  
  • Land transport of people  
  • Lifting operations  
  • Lightning  
  • Vehicles and mobile equipment  
  • Work at height  

Site-specific material/fatal risks not covered by the Fatal Risk Standard are identified and managed using MMG’s Risk Management System. Fatal risks critical controls are undertaken and verified according to our risk management and critical control designs. Risks are also reviewed based on learnings from significant events reported. 

Safety, health and environment reporting and investigations  

Timely interventions or corrective actions to prevent fatalities, significant events and repeat incidents are informed through the SSHE Performance and Risk Management Standard. The SSHE Reporting and Recording Work Quality Requirement (WQR). These documents include the requirements for sites to:   

  • Use Incident and Event Management system (IEM) for reporting and analysis, overseeing corrective actions for incidents, near-misses, high-risk hazards, legal non-compliances, inspections and audits. 
  • Investigate according to the potential and actual consequence of the incident, with leadership of people from and outside the asset and company.  
  • Sharing learnings from MMG-wide Significant Events investigations to prevent repeat occurrences and to challenge the effectiveness of the design and execution for our fatal risk critical controls.

People and asset protection 

To protect people, assets and communities, our operations maintain site-specific Emergency Management Plans to mitigate the risk of all material risk events and potential infrastructure failings, with the required protocols, resourcing and regular continuous improvement testing drills. Where risks to external stakeholders have been determined to be significant, we engage with local stakeholders and third parties to ensure these plans take into consideration concerns and apply industry best practice. This includes the work we undertake at our operations and host communities when reviewing tailings facilities risk and emergency response plans. In the event of the emergency escalating to a crisis, the Crisis Management Team (CMT) is activated and supported by the Executive Committee members to respond to the event. 

In developing Security Management Plans based on site-specific risks, MMG sites require all private and public security companies to be signatories to the International Code of Conduct Association (ICoCA) for Private Security Providers and the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights (VPSHR). 

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