The safety performance of Canada’s mining industry improved 75% between 1984 and 1994, according to statistics released by the Ontario Mining Association.
The lost-time injury rate last year was 1.86 per 200,000 hours worked, compared with 7.55 in 1984. The dramatic gain is based on the lost-time injury statistics of operations which entered the John T. Ryan Safety Trophies competition.
The 1994 trophies were awarded at the annual meeting of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum in Halifax, N.S.
The winners were Cominco’s Polaris mine in the metal category, International Minerals & Chemicals’ K2 potash mine in the select category, and Fording Coal’s Greenhills operation in the coal category.
Among the winners, the K2 mine in Saskatchewan had a lost-time injury rate of 0.0 per 200,000 hours, the Greenhills mine in British Columbia experienced 0.26, and the Polaris mine in the High Arctic experienced 2.99.
The competition began in 1941 when the Mine Safety Appliances Company of Canada (now MSA Canada) donated a trophy to encourage the safe production of minerals as part of Canada’s effort to meet demand during wartime. Since then, the competition has expanded to include a coal trophy in 1942, and a select mine trophy in 1970.
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