Silver News
Hecla's Lucky Friday Has Safest Year on
Record
In 1995, Hecla Mining
Company's Lucky Friday silver/lead mine near Mullan, Idaho,
completed its safest year on record in its 36 years of operation.
The record is far better than the national
average for underground mines and even beats the statistics
for surface mines, which are far less physically labor intensive.
The last lost-time accident at Lucky Friday occurred on December
19, 1994.
A lost-time accident is incurred when an
employee injured on the job is unable to return to work after
medical treatment. A cut or bruise may require first aid or
attention by a doctor, but it is not a lost-time accident
if the doctor releases the employee to return to work immediately.
Lucky Friday Unit Manager Tom Fudge says,"This
is the culmination of a concerted effort that began back in
the 1980s, after 60 lost-time accidents were reported in 1980
alone. We've changed our technology and mining method to increase
safety at Lucky Friday, but more importantly, there's been
a change on the part of our people's attitudes towards safety."
All Lucky Friday employees participate in
safety refresher courses twice yearly, and a safety audit
program was begun at the start of 1995. According to Fudge,
93 percent of accidents are caused by unsafe work practices,
rather than unsafe working conditions. The safety audits are
designed to observe employees' work habits and advise them
on ways to work more safely.
Fudge says that the benefits from no lost-time
accidents are many. "First and foremost, we don't have
any hurt people. The benefits of that are obvious: no pain
and injury for the employee, no trauma for the family and
the employee loses no time on the job. It also means we have
no disruption in production from accidents or absent people,
and it saves money by cutting down on our workers' compensation
payments."
Fudge believes it is difficult to achieve
this kind of safety record at an underground mine like Lucky
Friday, because, on any given shift, employees are doing many
very physical jobs, such as operating a jackleg drill, setting
rockbolts, hanging wire, and driving trucks and front-end
loaders in a challenging environment.
Editor's note: At deadline in late March,
the Lucky Friday Mine had kept its safety record intact for
456 days without a lost-time accident.
Silver News — April/May 1996
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