A life-protecting culture that generates progress
We encourage safe, healthy, and dignifying labor in artisanal and small-scale mining at Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM) through particular strategies for each mining group, aiming to improve working conditions, training for miners and a higher control of the risks that affect workers.
We are committed to a continuous strengthening with good practices of occupational health and safety, making sure that people are protected in their working environment.
Why Must We Foster Occupational Health and Safety in Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining?
According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), mining is still one of the most dangerous occupations, considering the death, injury, and illness rates among mine workers. Although mining work represents only 1% of the taskforce worldwide, this sector has 8% of the mortal accident at the workplace.
It is important that mining organizations constantly improve the work conditions and environment in which miners perform their duties, thus promoting mental, social, and physical wellbeing.
Organizational Health and Safety at Fairmined
The main goal of the criteria defined for mining health and safety issues is the prevention of accidents and adverse impacts on miners’ health. Just like the other criteria, they are conceived as a progressive process that intends to mitigate accident risks to a minimum, always in compliance with legislation. Fairmined certification process is the main monitoring tool that aims to approach prevention of work criteria to develop the capabilities needed within Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining Organizations (ASMOs) so that safe workplaces are implemented.
Part of the Fairmined preventive approach is the implementation of good practices in mining health and safety, as well as the strengthening of capabilities.
On the path towards responsible mining and the improvement in occupational health and safety conditions in Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM), ARM develops their processes in compliance with the legal requirements of each operation, the joint construction of solutions at hand, and the implementation of CRAFT and Fairmined criteria, intending to minimize risks that may cause accidents or illnesses in mining activities.
Through this support and consulting in the implementation of different strategies according to the needs of every case, we work on the consolidation of a better trained ASM, creating safe, stable jobs with:
Training and Education
We support the ASM in structuring training programs and the development of the different issues related to occupational health and safety, promoting the development of safe skills and behaviors for miners in order to prevent work-related accidents and illnesses.
In ARM we have been trained:
people in the ASM sector, among men and women miners, barequeros, technical and administrative staff (May 2021)
Training in over 25 different work-related issues, such as Occupational health and safety in mining spaces, as well as in virtual spaces.irtuales.
Improvement of Risk Conditions in Mining
Within the mining organizations in which we work, it is very important to identify risks in mining activities, and also those sub-standard acts and conditions that jeopardize the physical integrity of miners in order to plan and implement proper actions towards the prevention of accidents in the workplace.
Starting from an integral diagnose, in ARM, we develop sustainability plans focused on identifying health and safety needs at work, which is why the following aspects are considered:
- Safety inspections, and risk identification to start proper actions.
- Hygiene conditions in mining, identifying the processes that affect health in people, and proposing improvement actions.
- Have human and technical capabilities that may provide attention in case of emergency.
- Identification of needs for signals and improvement proposals to avoid future occurrence of such problems.
- Support investigation of work-related accidents and proposals of corrective actions to avoid them.
- Support the creation of committees with mining groups that support the OHS.
- Support in the definition and implementation of training based on the identification of previous needs.
Occupational Health and Safety Sensitization Campaigns
Campaigns aim to create a prevention culture in miners so that they adopt good practices, commit, and empower their own and the mining organization risk management. The Alliance for Responsible Mining, along with other entities, has made some campaigns focused on recommendations such as: self-care against COVID-19 in artisanal and small-scale mining, as well as in self-care campaigns in mining during the development of their operation activities.
COVID – 19 Campaigns:
COVID Campaign design and implementation, intending to sensitize artisanal and small-scale mining about the actions and self-care they must have to avoid COVID transmission in their mining facilities.
Self-care Campaigns:
Self-care is part of the everyday duties in mining operations. Mostly, because it involves the right actions when performing, and because it prevents possible accidents that may cause work-related injuries or illnesses, which is why, in order to make miners aware and empowered about this issue, we have implemented campaigns in different territories. Safety starts with each one of us taking care of our health.
Compliance Assessment of Health and Safety in Mining
In ARM, we support and implement the assessment process on health and safety in mining, in compliance with the country legislation, in which the continuous improvement plan is established according to the results:
assessments performed (May 2021)
Assessing the implementation of health and safety actions in mining allow anticipation, recognition, and identification of weaknesses that the organization has against regulatory compliance in OHS and, at the same time, determine the intervention route to overcome those findings.