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Anglo American Platinum Limited

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Human capital

R68m		R614		48%
spent on adult basic education in 2009		students had company bursaries in 2009		HDSA management achieved in 2009

In general, human capital incorporates the safety, health, knowledge, skills, intellectual outputs, motivation and capacity for relationships of the individual.

In the organisational context of Anglo American Platinum Limited (Amplats), human capital includes those elements needed for people to engage in productive work and the creation of wealth, thereby achieving a better quality of life for employees and their families.

OVERVIEW

The vision of Amplats’s health programme is to operate in a manner that will place employees’ well-being at the core of the Company and contribute to its chief value of caring.

EMPLOYEE SAFETY

In general, human capital incorporates the safety, health, knowledge, skills, intellectual outputs, motivation and capacity for relationships of the individual. In the organisational context of Amplats, human capital includes those elements needed for people to engage in productive work and the creation of wealth, thereby achieving a better quality of life for employees and their families. OVERVIEW The vision of Amplats’s health programme is to operate in a manner that will place employees’ well-being at the core of the Company and contribute to its chief value of caring. EMPLOYEE SAFETY Employee safety is a material issue, and has therefore been covered in detail in the ‘Our material issues’ section of this report.

Healthy people

Because we recognise the integral nature of the health programme and the complexity of factors that may impact an individual's well-being, we proactively manage and reduce risks to our employees. Supporting our occupational health risk identification process are comprehensive surveillance and monitoring programmes.

Amplats manages a number of initiatives in the areas of public health, HIV/AIDS, and promotive, preventative and curative care. These educate employees in a number of areas and also allow them to benefit from our comprehensive healthcare services.

Given the background of high medical cost inflation in South Africa and various financial constraints, Amplats continues to be recognised by the Registrar of Medical Schemes as providing quality but also cost-effective and sustainable healthcare, delivered mainly through the health management organisation model (HMO). Mine hospital-based healthcare provision is the ideal model for enabling access to affordable healthcare for lower-income families who cannot afford the cost of private medical schemes. This service is available at no cost to the majority of employees, and at affordable rates to all employees and contractors working at Amplats operations.

Amplats provides the following health services:

• A range of public healthcare interventions aimed at preventing infectious diseases, including tuberculosis, cholera and malaria, and expert assistance to regional healthcare services.
• The treatment of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis (TB).
• HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programmes for employees and dependants.
• Occupational healthcare service.
• Primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare.

Occupational health

In 2009 the information system used for occupational healthcare services was enhanced, to allow for risk-based scheduling of employees' fitness assessment and medical surveillance. In addition, the system interfaces with the human resource system and updates information on the fitness-to-work status of employees. This development will streamline occupational healthcare visits, enhanced chronic disease management and minimise the risk of expired fitness to work certificates.

Medical surveillance and monitoring programmes 

Our medical surveillance and monitoring programmes for occupational illness are based on known risks and are undertaken at our operations, where comprehensive medical care facilities are available to employees and contractors. The programmes include the extensive monitoring of exposure to risks that is conducted on an ongoing basis.

Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL)

Noise exposure remains the most significant occupational health risk at Amplats. It is therefore addressed in the 'Our material issues' section of this report.

Platinosis

The potential for platinum-salt sensitisation occurs only at Precious Metal Refiners. The risk has decreased significantly over the past two decades. There was one case diagnosed in 2009, compared with seven in 2008 and none in 2007. The 2008 increase prompted amendments to specific procedures relating to good housekeeping control measures. For example, the procedures used to guide tasks during stocktaking were amended, resulting in the improvement witnessed in 2009. 

Other occupational diseases

A total of 11 new occupational diseases have been reported during 2009, 10 of which were not attributable to Amplats. 

Exposure to nickel

Potential employee exposure to nickel in isolated sections of the metallurgical process is addressed in the short term through specialised personal protective equipment. Long-term engineering solutions include the building of a new nickel tank-house equipped with leading-edge enclosure and extraction technology. Both the new nickel and copper tank-houses will also be reengineered to improve aerosol capture, which will further limit exposure to nickel. Occupational hygiene monitoring, medical surveillance and targeted biological monitoring are conducted among the small group of employees working in this environment. 

Airborne dust exposure

Ongoing occupational hygiene measurements reflect occupational exposures to airborne dust in our mining operations to be at levels below set occupational exposure limits. Furthermore, detailed analysis indicated that -quartz forms only a trace constituent of the total Merensky Reef. The -quartz content of the UG-2 Reef is even lower.

Occupational exposure to airborne dust is deemed not to be a significant health hazard in our mining operations. A number of factors and control measures contribute to the low dust levels, which include: 

• high humidity of underground environments; 
• sound ventilation principles, designs, standards and practices;
• comprehensive watering-down procedures;
• wet-drilling methods;
• dust suppression on operations and equipment (eg water sprays, dust filters, cyclones);
• low-velocity ventilation over conveyor belts (< 3.0 m/s);
• re-entering periods (calculated on the basis that no exposure to any significant airborne pollutant associated with blasting will occur); and 
• the nature of the ore deposits. 

The risk posed by occupational exposure to airborne dust is low/insignificant in the Company's underground operations. Control initiatives are thus limited to specific areas and generally focus on engineering controls, respiratory protection, ongoing occupational exposure measurements and medical surveillance. A comprehensive review of our baseline airborne dust exposure profile is planned for 2010. 

Exposure to diesel particulate matter

Occupational exposure to diesel particulate matter in mechanised underground sections has been identified as a potential risk, and as a result a comprehensive baseline occupational hygiene assessment was completed in 2009. A task-team was subsequently formed to assemble a strategy to eliminate or mitigate the risk. 

Infectious tuberculosis (TB)

In 2009 TB continued to be a challenge and, given the high number of deaths resulting from this infectious disease, this issue has been addressed under 'Our material issues' section of this report. 

The rehabilitation and functional assessment (RFAC) battery of tests

Physical and functional assessments are regarded as an extension of the existing suite of assessment tools used to assess minimum standards of fitness to perform work. During 2009 the emphasis in physical and functional work-capacity assessment fell on job allocation, specifically in terms of matching the employee's work capacity to the demands of the job under operational conditions. Vocational rehabilitation remains an integral part of the fitness assessment process.

In order to ensure reliable test outcomes, additional standard operating procedures were introduced in 2009. Biannual operational audits were conducted at the three rehabilitation and functional assessment (RFA) centres in the course of the year. 

Medical incapacity

In 2009, 654 employees were referred for a medical incapacity review. The bulk of the cases was associated with non-occupational communicable and non-communicable diseases.

Of the 654 employees, 310 (47%) were successfully placed in alternative job positions. This high rate of successful placement can be attributed to the availability of a vocational rehabilitation programme and to a successful physical and functional assessment set of tools.

An important subset of the overall medical incapacity data is the one associated with occupational injuries and diseases. This comprised 73 cases (11% of the total number of 654 employees). Of these, 33 were associated with injury on duty and 40 associated with occupational diseases. Forty-five (61%) of the candidates under this subset were successfully placed in alternative positions. Unfortunately, the contracts of the other 28 employees had to be terminated. 

Preparedness plan for pandemic influenza A/H1N1

Following the reporting of pandemic influenza A/H1N1 cases in South Africa and the decision by the World Health Organisation to increase the pandemic alert level to phase 6, our business continuity plan was activated. The plan included both an assessment of the pandemic's impact on the business and preparedness for the pandemic.

With respect to business continuity, monthly sick-leave absenteeism data were used as a proxy parameter to monitor the impact of the pandemic. The data for absenteeism in 2008 were used for the purpose of comparison.

Pandemic preparedness plans focused on prevention measures, case definition and investigation, surveillance, Tamiflu stockpiling and communication. 

HIV AND AIDS

The Company recognises the importance of HIV and AIDS and the potential impact it may have on the organisation. It has therefore been addressed in the 'Our material issues' section of this report. 

Digital occupational hygiene exposure measurement system (DOHEmS)

Employees are often exposed to a large combination of stresses occurring at various levels and intervals. However, occupational hygiene measurement usually focuses on single stresses in isolation from other stresses, and consequently there is little to no understanding of the combined impact of workplace stresses on workers. Also, despite the fact that work environments are assessed as a standard practice, workers’ physiological reactions to stresses are seldom assessed or monitored.

To counter these limitations, Amplats has been developing a new monitoring system as part of its ongoing DOHEMS (digital occupational hygiene measurement system) project. The main aims of the project have been to research, develop and eventually produce a personal occupational hygiene exposure monitoring system. The research and development phases have been completed at a cost of approximately R14 million, and operational rollout of the system is scheduled over 2010 to 2011.

This system will collect, record and analyse various data related to stress factors and physiological responses capable of having an impact on the wellness of employees or resulting in their ill health. Of special concern is the type of stress build-up that negatively affects the alertness of individual workers, with injury or even permanent disability or death as a potential threat.

The monitoring system will eventually replace the bulky and expensive monitoring equipment currently in use. Its main component is a portable, battery-operated device that is capable of monitoring the immediate working environment by means of periodic, simultaneous sampling relating to vibration, noise, toxic gases, temperature, pressure, humidity, body temperature and heart rate. It also has continuous audio and visual recording capabilities. All its measurements will be time- and date-stamped, and will be recorded onto a non-volatile storage device capable of storing a vast number of samples covering an eight-hour working shift as a minimum.

Coupled with a visual local alarm system that indicates any exposure to excessive stresses, DOHEMS offers an early warning system that allows workers and supervisors to respond to potential dangers without delay. It will also transfer recorded results to a central management console providing comprehensive data management, analysis, reporting and record-keeping.

Extensive audio and visual footage, together with records of environmental workplace conditions, will also assist in other areas of risk management, including incident investigations, ergonomic assessments and training needs analyses. In extreme situations, such as disaster investigations, the monitor can be utilised as an individual ‘black box’, ie providing investigators with information on conditions leading to the disaster.

Additional applications currently under investigation include a physical strain index indicator, a local tracking device, particulate matter measurement and brainwave-activity monitoring.