“I don’t know if I’ll be going home tonight, I say goodbye to my wife and kids every morning, as though I’m never coming back.”

We expect to hear these words from Police Officers, but this sentence came from a Miner. It struck a chord. I suppose because Miners are effectively invisible, below the surface, we simply do not see or even think of the immense danger they face going to work every day.

Their families know, their colleagues know, but the average jewelry shopper more than likely doesn’t give a thought to the risks involved in getting the materials out of the ground to produce that gorgeous piece of bling. People literally risked their lives so you can share your shine on social media.

And it’s not just the work below the surface that comes with immense hazards, the processing of these materials is almost equally dangerous for people. Below the surface are hazards like falling rocks, hazardous gas inhalation, low rooves that require cutting of bakkies and lying down at 30 degrees in order to get below the roof of the mine safely. Controlling of flames in gaseous conditions, to name a few.

And once the extracted materials reach the surface, the jewelry shopper is still unaware of furnace maintenance, whether a repair requires a special permit to work at heights; does the artisan below him know that a hammer could fall on his head at any moment; are permits-to-work synced and controlled to prevent that?

When you consider the gold price for investment purposes, do you ever think about whether safety measures are built into that price? Are you just paying for the gold, or is part of that share price going towards sending people home to their families every day?

It should. Considering the severity of these risks, paper-based permits-to-work – whilst intentionally noble, are simply not enough. They do not afford Mine Managers the visibility and real-time data to make instant decisions which directly affect the safety of the people in their charge. Knowing you’re responsible for the safety of other human beings is an immense pressure in itself and should be enabled in every way possible.

Electronic Permits-to-Work should no longer be considered a luxury like that bling in the jewelry store, but a necessity for protecting human life. If you care about the people behind the bling, contact caroline.carter@rsph.co.za for a FREE Consultation & Demo.

Rifle-Shot Performance Holdings