ESG
Putting the health and safety of our people first
Our workforce is our most important asset: ensuring they have a safe and healthy work environment, are highly skilled and well-trained.
2024 highlights
- TIFR: 0.88
- 2053 employees completed safety training
- 284 trained in basic first aid
- 100% of employees received scheduled routine health checks, ensuring proactive health monitoring
At Caledonia, ensuring the health, safety, and well-being of our workforce is a fundamental value. Our safety management approach is guided by clear goals and proactive strategies, including:
· Zero fatalities and life-altering injuries: Committed to eliminating serious incidents through rigorous risk mitigation, engineering controls and proactive safety interventions.
· First aid readiness: Ensuring at least 75% of employees are trained in basic first aid to enhance emergency response capabilities.
· Technology and data-driven safety: Leveraging real-time monitoring, reporting, and analytics to enhance risk management and operational safety.
· Continuous injury and occupational illness reduction: Strengthening workplace safety measures, hazard identification, and incident prevention.
· Slam (Stop, Look, Assess, Manage): A proactive approach empowering employees to evaluate risks before undertaking tasks, reinforcing our safety-first mindset.
Mining presents inherent safety challenges, from operating heavy machinery and handling hazardous chemicals to managing large-scale blasting activities. Given these risks, health and safety remain a top sustainability priority for both management and external stakeholders.
To strengthen this commitment, we have established:
Our training programs are designed to increase hazard awareness, enhance risk response capabilities, and encourage open dialogue between employees and management. Workers are empowered to proactively identify and report risks, ensuring continuous improvements in safety performance. We use a four-step stop, look, assess, manage safety tool to identify, evaluate and mitigate risks before starting a task, which is further strengthened by our hazard identification and risk assessment protocol.
Every injury, near miss, or safety incident is treated as a critical early warning system. Each case is thoroughly reviewed and assessed to identify root causes and implement corrective actions that prevent recurrence.
We maintain a dedicated emergency response team on-site at Blanket Mine and enforce a zero-tolerance policy unsafe behaviour across all operations.
Gold mining and its associated processes present a range of occupational health hazards, including chemical and dust inhalation, noise exposure, and strain injuries. If not effectively managed, these risks can lead to serious long-term health conditions. Our goal is to maintain a workplace free from occupational disease. We prioritise prevention-first strategies, implementing proactive measures to reduce risks and safeguard employee wellbeing.
We remain focused on continuous improvement – whether through refining heat and noise management or ensuring consistent health surveillance and system reliability – to protect our workforce and sustain our operations into the future.
The Nyanzvi initiative at Caledonia is aimed at maintaining high safety standards at Blanket and was designed to facilitate cultural change at the operation. At its core is a culture of responsibility and collaboration – we are focused on co-creating a unique employee development programme that is based on the understanding that it is every employee’s responsibility to safeguard their own safety and that of their fellow employees.
CASE STUDY
In Safe Competition
Each year, we actively participate in the annual Chamber of Mines First Aid competition, hosted at How Mine. Organised by the Zimbabwe Chamber of Mines, the competition challenges teams to demonstrate their ability to effectively respond to medical emergencies commonly encountered in mining environments. Participants are assessed on their proficiency in administering first aid, assessing injuries, and managing various medical emergencies, such as accidents, injuries, or illnesses.
Teams consist of twelve members, divided between underground and surface teams. Each team must navigate simulated underground and surface-based accident scenarios. With five members and one substitute in each group, teams have 15 minutes to complete each exercise, including the rescue and transportation of patients to medical facilities.
In the 2023 competition, Blanket Mine’s underground team achieved fifth place, highlighting their proficiency in emergency response and dedication to safety excellence.