The National Mining Association (NMA) last week recognized Freeport-McMoRan’s achievement of independent certification under its CORESafety® system. Freeport-McMoRan joins six other companies in receiving independent certification under NMA’s signature safety initiative.

“We congratulate Freeport-McMoRan on this laudable safety milestone,” said Hal Quinn, president and CEO of NMA. “This certification demonstrates Freeport-McMoRan’s commitment to putting worker safety and health at the forefront of all of its operations and to continuously improving its safety performance year after year.”

CORESafety was a natural progression of Freeport-McMoRan’s safety program that has been certified under OHSAS 18001 for some years, said Red Conger, president and chief operating officer-Americas.

“At Freeport-McMoRan, we have a deep commitment to safe production and a strong belief every job and every task can be performed safely,” Conger said. “We are proud to receive this independent certification under the NMA’sCORESafety system. A safety management system using CORESafety will help assure we have a systematic and repeatable approach to safe production. Ultimately, that means employees work safely and return home to their families at the end of each shift.”

CORESafety’s approach to safety and health emphasizes accident prevention using a risk-based management system anchored in leadership, management and assurance. The CORESafety framework is designed to go beyond what is required by regulations, focusing on a goal of continuous improvement. Its objective is zero fatalities and a 50 percent reduction in mining’s injury rate within five years of implementation. Since its inception in 2011, CORESafety participants have seen a 74 percent reduction in fatalities.

CORESafety is a voluntary safety and health initiative developed and facilitated by the NMA, the U.S. mining industry’s national trade association. CORESafety participants agree to: commit to the CORESafety system; implement a functionally-equivalent version of the CORESafety safety and health management system; submit to NMA annual self-assessments of progress toward implementation of the CORESafety safety and health management system; and, if the company elects to become or maintain CORESafety certification, complete a third-party assessment of its safety and health management system to verify that it is functionally equivalent to CORESafety and submit the assessment report to NMA.

Predictive Safety conducted the independent audit for Freeport-McMoRan. For more information on CORESafety, visit www.coresafety.org.