Tampakan’s Sagittarius Mines Inc. (SMI), the government contractor for the Tampakan Copper Gold Project, received the 2010 Safest Mine Award exploration category at an annual gathering of industry leaders held recently. A national steering committee gave SMI a 96.14 rating.
Just recently, SMI also received an Award of Distinction for “reaching a milestone of five million man hours without Lost Time Injury (LTI) from the Safety Organization of the Philippines, Inc. (SOPI), achieving the five million zero incident milestone January of this year.
President Benigno S. Aquino, in his message delivered by Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Ramon Paje, said his administration will protect the safety of mining workers as the Philippines try to imbibe the lessons of recent mining accidents in Chile and China.
“President Aquino respects and admires the courage and industry of the Filipino miner and he said his administration will ensure that our miners will have safe working conditions,” Paje said of the president’s message.
“We will continue to implement and improve on various safety programs such as education and training, risk identification and prevention, contractor engagement and light vehicle safety management”, said Rogelio Quito, SMI safety superintendent.
“Our behavior-based safety programs, measures and audit systems have been widely accepted throughout the company and by the community,” he added.
