Gold Fields Ghana Tarkwa Customer Story

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Reducing risk through operator awareness

In mining, fatigue and distraction are as real as the long, monotonous shifts, noise and poor visibility facing vehicle operators. That’s why Gold Fields Ghana turned to Hexagon in its pursuit of safer operations at its Tarkwa gold mine.

“Over the years, we have recorded significant incidents, and the stats are clear, the data doesn’t lie. We had recorded fatigue-related incidents and equipment-to-equipment head-on collisions. We wanted to bring to bear our culture of care, and to fulfill the corrective actions, leading to Hexagon coming on board. They have improved our operations significantly,” says Stephen Boamah, Safety & Occupational Hygiene Manager at Gold Fields Ghana.

Tarkwa people
Tarkwa site
Tarkwa technology

Gold Fields commitment to protecting people and equipment

Tarkwa uses Hexagon’s Operator Alertness System (OAS) and Collision Avoidance System (CAS). OAS employs advanced sensor technology and machine-learning algorithms to monitor operators’ alertness levels. When signs of distraction, drowsiness, or microsleeps are detected, operators receive real-time notifications, providing a crucial layer of protection during their shifts.

“Having access to data allows us to evaluate at-risk behaviour from a system point of view. This has helped management narrow down the specific at-risk behaviours we need to target to ensure operators are safe. It has been an integral part of Tarkwa’s success as far as our safety journey is concerned in building the safety discipline and culture we want to build as part of Gold Fields’ operations,” says Daniel Korsah, Manager Asset Optimisation Ghana (Tarkwa and Damang).

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Training journey integral to compliance and a safer mine

Technology is just one layer of mine safety. Change management and data insights are also important layers. Neither CAS nor OAS stand alone as 100% effective. Even when both solutions are combined operators must still be engaged and re-engaged in a cycle of continuous improvement.
 
Tarkwa Mine Manager, Gold Fields Ghana, Dr. Catherine Kuupol Kuutor, describes the journey of training and improvement: “It took their [Hexagon’s] training for us to build the people within the company, the engineers, to start managing it. So, there has been that transfer of knowledge from Hexagon to Gold Fields and now Gold Fields is using this knowledge to maintain the system as expected.

“There has been a win-win for us in terms of safety, in terms of transfer of knowledge, in terms of how we can proactively resolve issues.

“Gold Fields has demonstrated its duty of care towards employees by committing to some of these capital investments, which then makes the operator feel that if Gold Fields as a company has invested so much for my safety, why don’t I comply so I can be safe for my family, my kids and the community?

“So, we have demonstrated that and Hexagon, through the technologies, has actually allowed us to be able to live up to our values. And one of the first values in Gold Fields is safety. If we cannot mine safely, we will not mine.”

Tarkwa OAS
Tarkwa CAS