Safety is Oyu Tolgoi’s core value and is part of everything they do. Safety is
not about numbers - it’s about people. Underground development by its nature increases specific levels of
safety risk and reinforces why safety is Oyu Tolgoi’s main priority. The All Injury Frequency Rate
(AIFR) is an indicator of workplace health and safety and provides insight into an
organization’s efforts to protect its workforce from work-related hazards.
Overall, in 2020 Oyu Tolgoi LLC achieved an excellent result in safety with an AIFR
of 0.15 per 200,000 hours worked against a target of 0.23. Oyu Tolgoi Operations ended the year of 2020 with
AIFR of 0.15 against a target of 0.15. Oyu Tolgoi Underground ended the year of 2020 with AIFR of 0.16 against a
target of 0.29. Over 181,000 critical risk management verifications were completed during 2020 as part of Oyu
Tolgoi’s proactive fatality prevention program. By implementing robust programs and processes, Oyu Tolgoi LLC
has created a workplace and culture that focuses on health and safety as its top priority.
Oyu Tolgoi’s safety performance is underpinned by a rigorous approach to safety
consists of the following areas:
Leadership — Leadership is central to Oyu Tolgoi LLC’s approach to
safety with leaders expected to create and promote a safe work place by being present in the field and
highly engaged with their teams. A number of tools are utilised to help leaders integrate safety into their
activities and to become champions of safety improvements. Employees are encouraged to become safety
leaders within their own teams and to take personal responsibility for their own safety and that of
their colleagues.
Culture — Oyu Tolgoi LLC is working to establish a safety culture
that aligns organisational and individual employee values to create a positive culture that drives
consistent behaviour. All individuals at Oyu Tolgoi should feel comfortable to stop work if they feel it is
unsafe to continue. Every meeting at Oyu Tolgoi starts with a “safety share”, a chance for employees to
briefly describe any safety-related issue and to listen to constructive advice from colleagues who have
faced and resolved similar issues.
Systems and processes — Oyu Tolgoi LLC seeks to adopt best practice
safety management systems to deliver world-class safety performance. Oyu Tolgoi’s standards are
aligned with broader corporate and enterprise-wide safety standards providing a framework to measure,
monitor and continuously drive improvement in safety performance. Oyu Tolgoi LLC has successfully embedded
the Kaizen process into business improvement activities to enable teams to identify and
eliminate elements of work that do not add value or are obstacles to efficiency or safety. Examples of
Kaizen process initiatives include elimination of root causes that may trigger failures of critical
controls and identification of opportunities to improve the concentrate bagging process and border
procedures.
Risk management — Given the scale and complexity of Oyu Tolgoi, the
workforce faces a range of risks that must be managed carefully. Proactive measures are taken to
control risks by identifying hazards, assessing the risks they pose and using controls to prevent damage
and harm. Oyu Tolgoi LLC’s systems use risk assessments and controls for all tasks and utilise a variety of
different tools to help manage risks in their workplace. An example of risk management innovation
is the integration of the geographic information mapping system with high risk work activities to
provide the Emergency Response Team live location and work status. Oyu Tolgoi LLC has a strong focus on
critical risk management – controlling the risks that are the most serious, i.e., those that could lead to
fatality or permanent injury. Over 181,000 critical risk management verifications were completed by
Oyu Tolgoi LLC during 2020. Over 75,000 critical risk management verifications were completed in the Operations
area and over 105,000 conducted by the Underground project during 2020.
Training and awareness — A key component of Oyu Tolgoi LLC’s
approach is that each employee receives the training, skills and knowledge required to perform their
job safely. This is provided via a combination of classroom and on-the-job courses and training. In 2013,
Oyu Tolgoi LLC opened a risk demonstration centre, the first of its kind in Mongolia, which uses
interactive demonstrations and activities to show the potential consequences of the risks faced. Safety
campaigns run continuously throughout the year to highlight key operational risks including working at
heights, hand safety, electrical safety and others.
Employee and contractor engagement — Oyu Tolgoi LLC actively
encourages employee and contractor participation in all aspects of safety management. Contractors are
required to adhere to the same safety standards as Oyu Tolgoi LLC employees with a team dedicated to managing
contractor safety performance. Regular contractor engagement conferences provide an additional forum to
share safety approaches with contractors.
Oyu Tolgoi underground employees 1,300 metres below the surface, near
shaft 1