Zijin Mining is one of the world’s leading gold and precious metals producers. Ranked number 4 in the world in market capitalisation, Zijin is a company with over 36,000 employees, operating on 4 continents in 11 countries. Being Chinese-owned, their safety management systems and philosophies, have been adopted from within their domestic experience and applied to their international mining operations.
Wanting to align further with western and best industry safety management practices, Zijin engaged us to initiate a complete redevelopment of their safety management systems, for their international mining operations.
The first challenge presented, was the appreciation and understanding of the geographical spread of their operations and how both regulatory environments and cultures would influence these. Taking the approach of encompassing and applying global best industry practices, we revised their corporate safety management system structure, so that this could be replicated, in any of their international sites. It was important that these systems, ‘talked’ to each other, using a consistent structure and functionality
Mindful of the potential wholesale changes needed, we also reviewed the specific operational site safety management functions, to ensure that these could be adapted, to align with the new corporate structure and framework. In parallel with the system structure redevelopment, we also focused heavily on creating supporting safety initiatives, that would help drive the new processes and systems.
Effective and ongoing communication with key stakeholders was a pivotal success factor for this project. Language barriers and multiple time zones were challenging however, the support from the Zijin Executive team and the in-country management teams, made this project a successful one and one that we will always look back on and feel a sense of genuine accomplishment.
