As a result of the various risk control efforts applied to occupational safety and health undertaken by Drummond Ltd. in its mining operations, the company obtained the OHSAS 18001:2007 certification granted by Lloyd’s Register (LRQA) an international certification provider and risk analysis organization. This entity, after a series of audits, was able to verify the high safety standards at Drummond and compliance with the requirements of OHSAS.

This achievement is the result of the work Drummond Ltd. has been carrying out with the aim of certifying its Occupational Safety and Health Management System as the guarantee of an operation that implements safe practices, identifying and analyzing potential hazards, assessing risks and optimizing the strategies or programs that have an effect on the safety of its personnel.

“We started with our industrial safety and occupational health programs as a baseline, and then we structured the information in order to comply with the guidelines required by the OHSAS standard,” said Oscar Vega, Drummond Ltd.’s Industrial Safety Manager.

During the preparation and application of the standard, the company focused on three main activities:

1. Familiarization with and training on the OHSAS 18001 standard.
2. Preparation and structuring of the documentation in order to meet the guidelines required by the standard and compilation of information.
3. Direct participation of all of the areas and departments of the company, including project “sponsors” for each area.

The next step was training the internal auditors. “These internal auditors are company employees who carry out industrial safety and occupational health audits inside the organization,” said Vega. This is a necessary step to comply with the standard’s internal audit requirement.

After the internal audits were carried out, Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance Limited was called on to carry out an independent audit. As a result of that audit, Lloyd’s issued a positive recommendation for Drummond to receive the OHSAS 18001 certification.

“Employee safety is always our primary concern. We are very happy to complete a successful audit and proud of the certificate that we have now received. Our employees have worked hard to attain this goal and to properly put in place an internationally recognized compliance program to help us continue to enhance and improve employee safety,” said Richard Mullen, Executive Vice President Mining of Drummond Company, Inc.

With the participation of various areas of the company and the support of contractor companies, who also contributed to meeting the objective, it was possible to optimize diverse processes and standardize them into the framework of an OHSAS 18001 OHSMS.

Also, the applicable regulations, standards and legal requirements (OSHA, MSHA, NPFA, Colombian legislation) were taken as the basis for regulating each of the procedures, which permitted an optimal and viable process with the mission of being sustainable with the effort of the entire human team that contributed to making certification a reality.

Drummond Ltd. is always working to optimize the safety of its operations, while at the same time recognizing the commitment and dedication of an entire team that supports this process every day.

“This is a major achievement by our people at the mine to gain this certification. OHSAS 18001 sends a strong signal to all of our stake holders that our company is committed to protecting their needs and to ensuring the health and well-being of all of our employees,” said Terry Whitt, Vice President Human Resources of Drummond Company, Inc.