First, do no harm

Thato Sopeng, Sasol

Zero harm is a commitment every mining and industrial operator has made, but it remains challenging to attain. For decades, safety has largely worked after the fact. It’s easy to look back at the missteps that led to a fatality or an injury in hindsight and see how it could have been prevented, but harder to build systems that prevent harm.

Connectivity can help. When there is visibility into mineworkers, equipment and sites, supervisors can see where people are, machines can flag faults before they fail, and alarms can reach an entire site in seconds. But technology alone will not close the gap. This relies on leadership, safety culture, workforce trust and networks resilient enough to hold up when they are needed the most.