Mining Elites in Africa 2023: Health and Safety Winner – AngloGold Ashanti

Because they usually have a sizeable fleet of very heavy trucks operating in close proximity to other vehicles and equipment, and sometimes miners on foot, open pit mines are especially vulnerable to driver fatigue-related incidents says AngloGold Ashanti.

To counter the problem, AngloGold Ashanti’s Iduapriem mine in Ghana has introduced a successful fatigue management system to limit the health and safety risks related to fatigue.

Called ‘Life by SmartCap’, the system has shown an 18% increase in alertness levels among employees over a 12-month period. This improvement was seen at all hours of the day, with the most significant increase evident during the night shift.

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While there are plenty of good technologies that react to a person showing signs of fatigue, SmartCap proactively monitors the initial stages by alerting an AngloGold Ashanti operator before symptoms of fatigue progress, enabling them to better manage their fatigue.

Integral to the system is the LifeBand wearable technology device. Worn on the head, it provides accurate information about drivers’ and operators’ levels of fatigue in real time. It does this by measuring employees’ brain activity when they operate equipment and combining this information with advanced fatigue algorithms. It is the only device of its kind to use this technology.

This data is sent to a touchscreen that is installed in vehicle cabins and provides real-time feedback. The screen displays alertness scores and historical data and activates warning alerts and risk alarms if there is a danger of an operator falling asleep.

SmartCap eliminates ‘micro sleeps’, where an employee may lapse into sleep for a very short period, which is a major cause of accidents in the workplace. It also allows operators to proactively manage their own fatigue so that they and those around them get home safely at the end of every day.

Centralised monitoring for all of this data is provided through LifeHub, a cloud-based analytics suite. LifeHub can also send SMSs and e-mail alerts and provide live monitoring that can be sent to line supervisors and management, allowing them to address health and safety risks relating to fatigue as soon as they arise.

To implement the fatigue system at Iduapriem, AngloGold Ashanti worked closely with RAMJACK Technology Systems, a company founded in 2013 which – in its own words – is “a specialised, systems integrator dedicated to operations technology for the mining industry in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East.”

Fatigue management is often not considered a primary focus area for health and safety on mines. Considering truck drivers are ultimately responsible for such high value pieces of equipment, it should be a greater priority. This is an excellent project implemented by AngloGold Ashanti and worthy of featuring in this category.

Iduapriem is an open pit mine located some 70 km north of the coastal city of Takoradi and approximately 10 km south-west of the town of Tarkwa. It was originally developed by Golden Shamrock and poured its first gold in 1992. It was acquired by Ashanti Goldfields (now absorbed into AngloGold Ashanti) in 1996 and today is a roughly 200 000 ozpa producer. The vehicle fleet on site includes around 35 Cat 777s.

The gravity circuit recovers about 30% of the gold and the remainder is recovered by the 418 ktpm capacity CIL plant.