The Industrial Minerals Association – North America (IMA-NA) announced the companies and mining operations that will receive its safety recognition awards. IMA-NA Chairman Doug Smith and IMA-NA President Mark Ellis presented the awards at the IMA-NA’s Spring Meeting.
The safety recognition awards program is run in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). Three companies and three individual mining operations were honored.
The IMA-NA Safety Achievement Award recognizes the best reportable injury rate for an individual IMA-NA member company by size category for the preceding calendar year, in this case 2018. The award criteria evaluate a company’s safety performance at all of its mines. This year’s winners include:
Large Category (700,000 or more employee hours)
Ciner Wyoming LLC, Atlanta
877,823 hours
Medium Category (Fewer than 700,000 but more than 100,000 employee hours)
Old Hickory Clay Co., Mayfield, Ky.
124,917 hours
Small Category (Fewer than 100,000 employee hours)
Vanderbilt Minerals LLC, Norwalk, Conn.
63,071 hours
“The safety performance of these IMA members is truly inspiring,” said Ellis. “Large Category Honoree Ciner Resources worked 877,823 employee hours with two injuries for an injury rate of 0.46 per 200,000 employee work-hours. Medium Category Honoree Old Hickory Clay Co. had zero injuries while working 124,917 hours employee hours, for an injury rate of 0.00 per 200,000 employee work-hours. Small Category Honoree Vanderbilt Minerals also had a zero-injury rate, while working 63,071 employee work-hours. To put that in perspective, the injury rate for all metal and nonmetal mines in 2018 was 1.73.”
“MSHA and IMA-NA strive to help the industry achieve its ultimate goal – sending safe and healthy miners home to their families, every shift, every day,” said Smith, IMA-NA’s chairman and vice president and general manager, North American Ceramics for Imerys (Roswell, Ga.). “We’re pleased to recognize IMA-NA member companies that have compiled excellent safety records and who serve as examples for other companies.”
Also recognized are three individual IMA-NA-member mining operations for having the best reportable injury rate for the preceding calendar year in each of the previously described size categories. In every case, each mine had zero injuries for a total injury rate of 0.00 per 200,000 employee work-hours. This year’s honorees include:
Large Category (700,000 or more employee hours)
Carmeuse Lime & Stone Inc.
Longview Operation, Shelby County, Ala.
305,297 hours
Medium Category (Fewer than 700,000 but more than 100,000 employee hours)
Covia Holdings Corp.
Hephzibah Plant, Richmond County, Ga.
92,967 hours
Small Category (Fewer than 100,000 employee hours)
Vanderbilt Minerals LLC
Balmat Mining Operation, St. Lawrence County, N.Y.
43,811 hours