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 virtual Annual 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 2019. The award criteria evaluate a company’s safety performance at all of its mines. This year’s winners include:
Genesis Alkali LLC
Philadelphia
Large Category (700,000 or more employee hours)
(1,807,003 hours)
American Gilsonite Co.
Houston
Medium Category (Fewer than 700,000 but more than 100,000 employee hours)
(178,957 hours)
R.W. Sidley, Inc.
Painesville, Ohio
Small Category (Fewer than 100,000 employee hours)
(71,008 hours)
“The safety performance of these IMA members is truly inspiring,” said Ellis. “Large Category Honoree Genesis Alkali worked 1,807,003 employee hours with four injuries for an injury rate of 0.44 per 200,000 employee work-hours. Medium Category Honoree American Gilsonite Co. had zero injuries while working 178,957 hours employee hours, for an injury rate of 0.00 per 200,000 employee work-hours. Small Category Honoree R.W. Sidley also had a zero-injury rate, while working 71,008 employee work-hours. To put that in perspective, the injury rate for all metal and nonmetal mines in 2019 was 1.72.”
“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, vice president and general manager, Polymers and Coatings, 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.”
One additional member company in the Small Category operated all of its mines with zero injuries, although working fewer hours than the honoree. Vanderbilt Minerals will receive a certificate marking this significant achievement.
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:
KaMin LLC
Macon, Ga. Plant
Twiggs County, Ga.
Large Category (700,000 or more employee hours)
(343,288 hours)
US Silica
Lovelock Plant
Pershing County, Nev.
Medium Category (Fewer than 700,000 but more than 100,000 employee hours)
(233,162 hours)
R.W. Sidley, Inc.
Thompson Mine
Geauga County, Ohio
Small Category (Fewer than 100,000 employee hours)
(66,474 hours)
Forty-eight percent of all IMA-NA member company operations had zero injuries for calendar year 2019, although working fewer hours than the honorees.
IMA-NA was formed in April 2002 and represents mineral producer members and associate members providing goods and services to the industrial minerals industry. Membership is comprised of companies that are leaders in the ball clay, barite, bentonite, borates, calcium carbonate, diatomite, feldspar, industrial sand, kaolin, perlite, salt, soda ash (trona), talc, wollastonite and other industrial minerals industries. IMA-NA is the principal trade association representing the industrial minerals industry in North America. To learn more, visit http://www.ima-na.org.