Ibram - Implementation Trajectory of Process Safety Indicatorsin the Mining Industry

The Brazilan Mining Institute is a non-profit private organization, with more than 160 companies associated. All IBRAM actions are directly related to build new perspectives about Brazilian mining, design strategies and be a leader on the transition of the sector to a more productive, sustainable, safety scenario and more responsible with all around them.

In this context, in 2019 IBRAM – by means of the Compromising Latter, that follows the global tendency, changed responsible actions to attend to Environmental Safety and Government (ESG) – assumed with the society an important treat to contribute to the mining industry transformation, engaged different companies to think together in a better future.

The break dams put at risk the mining industry essentially. Otherwise, the mining can – and have to - be a vector to the development, to be an induction to the technological improvement, active contributor to an inclusive and balanced lifestyle, taking care of people and the environment, according to IBRAM.

With the aim of leveraging cultural transformation, initiatives related to operational safety were included with genuine engagement to give society confidence, admiration and respect for the operation of the mining industry.

For IBRAM, hazard identification and risk management are essential conditions to ensure that the operations of any economic activity are at acceptable safety levels or higher than the required standards.

In this context, the Institute - supported by mining companies – designed three important initiative the has an intention to provide specific actions to introduce Process Safety concept in the sector.

1. Contribute to a new framework of standards and laws that will regularly bring the mining of the future;
2. Promote the creation of a Center of Excellence for operational safety and Research and Development (R&D) in the mineral sector to share and develop good practices;
3. Create annual reports on operational safety, through specific forums between companies in the mineral sector, educational institutions and non-governmental bodies.

After all, according to the International Council on Mining & Metals (ICMM), mining is fundamental to almost every facet of our daily lives, from construction to technological innovations that boost the quality of our lives. However, we need to be aware of the balance of benefits and impacts of operations, making them safer and more sustainable.

As a means of promoting this balance, based on these initiatives, companies were engaged in an important discussion, introducing the concept and added value of the topic. Despite the little theoretical knowledge, it is clear to each participant that by adding process safety guidelines to the company's management system, they reinforce the objectives of being profitable companies, respecting people's lives, the community, protecting the environment and the company assets.

As a way of putting into practice the implementation of these initiatives, a working group was created that currently has approximately 18 companies and 30 effective participants distributed in three working subgroups to specifically conduct each initiative, under the coordination of representatives of the companies seeking direct discussions towards a collective result.

Based on the guidelines of the Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS), precursors in the study of process safety, meetings are held to share the general concept with the multidisciplinary group, seeking to encourage maturity in the subject and assertive direction in adapting to the industry of mining.

To prepare the annual report, the group met periodically in specific meetings to understand and build the system for identifying process safety events based on the guidelines in the Guide for Selecting Leading and legging indicators and the experiences of mining companies such as Anglo American, Usiminas, Vale, Nexa, Mosaic, Arcelor Mittal, among others.

Through active listening, information was collected about the reality of the operations of each participating company in the search for an understanding of the specificities of the mining industry, thus allowing the elaboration and definition of criteria for identifying and classifying events at different levels. of severity known as Tiers.

After all, everyone knows that monitoring occupational safety indicators alone is not enough to evaluate the safety of operations and, therefore, it is of fundamental importance to expand the vision of all aspects that can contribute to improving processes.

As a result of the work, all guidelines will be promoted and supported through the Process Safety Management PSM Implementation Manual and through the initiatives of the Center of Excellence, which plays a fundamental role in the governance of the implementation of process safety actions so that guidelines are implemented and aligned with the defined objectives and that best practices are followed.

Through 6 categories, the Center of Excellence drives the creation and adoption of new ideas and new technologies to be implemented:

• Work Group pillars
• Process Safety Guidelines
• Process Safety Best Pratices
• Process Safety Leasson Learning
• Process Safety Ecellence Goal award

Another important point of the Center of Excellence is to promote the training of companies, ensuring that members have the necessary skills and knowledge to perform their functions in the PSM area with excellence.

We emphasize that the manual provides relevant information on the direction of implementation of 12 of the 20 elements created by the CCPS, believing that this is the best way for the theme to be implemented in mining companies in conjunction with the existing management system.

Given this entire context, we saw the construction of IBRAM initiative 3 with the methodology for identifying process safety indicators in the mining industry. This product is intended to be a means of evaluating the performance of the management system of companies that implement this concept, enabling the group to share lessons learned with the creation of the annual report.