Capital Equipment News May 2023

Worker operating equipment faces fatigue at mines

Sam Mabena, an experienced safety practitioner in the African mining industry, recently took up the challenge to lead the safety department at Erudite, with a focus on developing and enhancing the best safety systems. Erudite is an engineering, procurement, and construction management (EPCM) company with a foothold in multiple coun tries across Africa. Since its founding, it has helped numerous mining enterprises to get off the ground and improve both their operational stability and profitability. Mabena acknowledges that South Africa is still one of the most regulated countries in Africa, other African coun tries are also improving their safety regulations and enforcement of systems and are reaping the benefits. “The considerable improvement in safe ty statistics seen over the past few years can be attributed to new interventions implemented by the Minerals Council Board in December 2021, and exhaustive measures undertaken by the various min ing stakeholders to curtail the worrying trend of the two years prior.” Since 2023, with over 4,200 shifts worked, Erudite has not experienced any fatalities, other injuries, high-profile incidents such as government stoppages, or any health, social, and environment-re lated incidents. A considerable concern for mining projects, given that employees often work with large, heavy equipment, is work place fatigue. Employees, and managers especially, must be attentive to signs of To bolster its service offering to the mining industry, the Bosch Rexroth Africa Group has appointed Jonas Corali as General Manager of Bosch Rexroth Smart Mine (Smart Mine), a company within Tectra Automation. At the helm of Smart Mine, Corali will focus on conducting and driving digital transformation in the mining industry, by offering smart mining solutions to stream line processes for mining operations. Solutions from Smart Mine include Smart Lockout, Smart Conveyor, Stop-Start Retrofit, and Smart Inspection. Corali has vast experience and exper tise in business development and growth, and generational stewardship. In the past 23 years, he has served the Group in Bra zil and Germany, and now in South Africa. Corali’s qualifications include Electrical Mechanics and Electronics, Manufactur

Miners at work. For ongoing safety, worker fatigue should be central to health and wellness at South African mines.

plement practical systems which employ hierarchical control processes and preven tative measures to protect workers from illnesses and injuries. This could include the physical removal of hazards from the workplace, replacement of hazardous equipment and materials where possible, isolating hazardous material, and protect ing workers with effective and applicable PPE. b

fatigue such as slower reactions, reduced ability to process information, lack of attention, underestimation of risk, and reduced coordination. It is crucial that organisations manage employees’ working hours, promote rest periods, and improve overtime approval processes to minimise worker fatigue, emphasises Mabena. He encourages management to im

Bosch Rexroth Africa’s new GM for Smart Mine

ing Engineering, and an MBA in Finance Management. He is a voluntary jury member of the Global Startup Awards,

an international competition that aims to identify the world’s best early-stage entrepreneurs and startups. b

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