Phalanndwa Colliery surpasses 3500 fatality free days

Phalanndwa Colliery employee driving a vehicle installed with 5G technology onsite.

Maintaining good safety standards at Phalanndwa Colliery has resulted in the team achieving more than 3500 fatality free days, a record they hope to exceed. The mine’s GM Kgotso Mongalo credits this to always making sure that control measures are in place and constantly reminding your team to take caution. The mine started implementing 5G technology in December 2022 through a partnership with Huawei, MTN and Minetec Smart Mining to improve safety and efficiency.

About 158 PDS units were installed in the vehicles on the two Phalanndwa sites. The technology helps to improve communication, enhancing safety and real time monitoring. The aim is to ensure that each employee returns home to their family alive and well. Kgotso emphasizes that the mining environment requires extra vigilance from all involved.

Sometimes natural occurrences like extreme weather slows down production, because employees are not expected to compromise their wellbeing by working under high-risk conditions. Kgotso explains that more than 600 millimetres of heavy rains swept across the area in February. The team had to wait for the rain to subside before working, to ensure safety. While this might result in a temporary setback, Kgotso explains that production is getting back on track and recovering lost ground