Managing health risks
+100 000 medical consultations provided for employees, their
families and local communities
24% reduction in number of malaria cases
Group level malaria incidence falls below 50%, and at least
30% below initial baselines at all mines
10% increase in number of employees attending voluntary
testing for HIV/AIDS
Importance to stakeholders >>
“We believe that a healthy workforce and their
immediate family are critical to the productivity and
functioning of our mines.”
HIV / AIDS
Malaria
Occupational health
Current potential impact on the business >>
Our mines are located in isolated parts of Africa where access to basic healthcare tends to be
extremely limited and where infectious diseases can create significant human and business
risks. That is why health issues, such as malaria and HIV/AIDS, appeared prominently in our
materiality assessment in 2013.
We believe that a healthy workforce and the security of knowing their immediate family are
healthy are critical to the productivity and functioning of our mines.
Access to
healthcare
As part of our sustainability policies, we provide free basic medical
services to employees, their immediate family and to community
members within a 10km radius of each of our mines.
Our policy is to establish health clinics both on the mine and in nearby villages, with the aim
of the latter being to transfer control to local authority over the medium-term. In 2014, the
community clinic in Kibali was transferred to the provincial authority.
In 2014, we operated seven clinics across our five mines and their communities. This resulted
in just over 100 000 medical consultations of which around 70% were for employees. The total
number of consultations is down slightly on last year, reflecting the contraction in the size of the
workforce as a whole.
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Randgold Resources Annual Report 2014
The Loulo and Tongon clinics are two of seven across Randgold’s
operations which provide free basic healthcare to employees and
the surrounding communities.
One of the biggest health issues of 2014 was the Ebola
outbreak, which threatened West Africa and the DRC. A
full explanation of our approach to this crisis can be found
earlier in this report (see: ‘Prepared for crises: Managing
the Ebola risk’) and the appropriate policies and protocols
will continue to be applied at all our sites throughout 2015.
As with all our health initiatives, we have sought to
work with local partners whenever possible. Some of
the local NGOs that we worked with in 2014 included
IDEAL (Initiative Développement Environnement Afrique
Libre), BFED (Bureau de Formation et de Conseil en
Développement) and CSP (Coalition of the Private sector
in the fight against HIV/AIDS). We also helped with
the distribution of medical equipment through North
American partners (CURE).
TOTAL MEDICAL CONSULTATIONS
2014
Total number of medical
consultations
2013
100 644
112 678
% employees
70%
67%
% employee dependents
18%
18%
% local community
12%
15%
Randgold Resources Annual Report 2014
135
As well as our core
provision of basic
healthcare, Randgold also
runs a focused programme
at each of our mine sites
to combat malaria. This disease kills around 25 000
people in our three countries of operation each year but
it is preventable and we are glad to report zero deaths
from the disease among our host communities in 2014.
Net benefits
in our fight
against malaria
We believe that the battle against the disease is one of
our best investments. Over 4 000 sick leave days were
recorded due to malaria in 2014 – around 28% of total
absenteeism – and reducing these losses helps make
a strong business case for our anti-malaria programme.
More than this, however, we also find that the productivity
and morale of our workforce is boosted enormously when
they know that they, their family and friends need not live
in fear of this disease.
EMPLOYEE MALARIA INCIDENCE RATE1
Baseline
2014
2013
2012
Morila
192.0 (2000)
26.3
23.5
31.3
Loulo
51.1 (2005)
33.6
34.0
57.9
Gounkoto
74.0 (2011)
51.3
55.2
77.5
Kibali
113.1 (2011)
65.7
61.1
70.3
Tongon
132.7 (2010)
50.7
61.1
65.0
49.9
52.7
64.0
%
Group
1
Defined as the number of new positive cases among
employees, multiplied by 100, divided by total employees
during the reporting period. Note that incidence rate can be
over 100% as a single employee can contract malaria more
than once in a year.
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Randgold Resources Annual Report 2014
Our programme in 2014 included the distribution of almost
16 000 impregnated mosquito nets, extensive spraying
campaigns, pro-actively encouraging early diagnosis
at our clinics and entomological surveys to understand
which chemicals will be most effective in our spraying.
In total, we invested just over $470 000 in our malaria
programme last year.
The total number of malaria cases across the group
reduced from 8 102 in 2013, to 6 163 in 2014 – a reduction
of 24%. This brought group level malaria incidence below
50% for the first time, and puts incidence at all mines at
least 30% below the initial baselines set before the mine
started. While this is encouraging, it does not meet our
ambitious target to reduce incidence of the disease by
25% year-on-year and we were disappointed by slight
increases in the rate at both Kibali and Morila.
Early analysis of these results led to several measures now
being implemented, which we hope will have a positive
impact in 2015. These include an increased focus on
protecting night shift workers (as malaria mosquitoes
are most active at dusk), and increased training and
supervision for those conducting the spraying. In 2014,
we started working with the Research and Malaria
Training Centre in Bamako to increase the expertise of our
sprayers. For example, in order to be effective spraying
must be extremely thorough, leaving no safe place for a
mosquito to land and it needs to be adapted for difference
surfaces (such as wood, concrete or mud).
At Kibali the slight increase in incidence may point to a
need to widen the coverage of our insecticide spraying.
In 2015, we will undertake a cost-benefit analysis to
determine whether we should increase the scope of the
community spraying.
Randgold believes that its spend on the battle against malaria
is one of its best investments.
HIV/AIDS is widespread
across sub-Saharan
Africa, particularly in the
DRC. O ur HIV/AIDS
programme aims to
help stop the spread of the disease by encouraging safe
sex, raising awareness and promoting Voluntary
Counselling and Testing (VCTs).
Helping prevent
and live with
HIV/AIDS
The target for our HIV programme is no new infections
among our employees.
In 2014, we spent over $27 000 on our HIV/AIDS
programme. Among other measures, this helped to
enable the distribution of over 161 000 condoms, funded
mobile video education units in the communities and
AIDS awareness month in December, and supported
training for peer educators. Our peer educators are
members of the community, including employees and
sex workers, who are trained in counselling about HIV
and communicating the risks and tend to have more
resonance with their peers than others can.
It was very encouraging that the number of employees
and sub-contractors tested for HIV on a voluntary basis
at our mine clinics rose by 10% in 2014, rising to 3 207
people in 2014, from 2 908 in 2013. This is important
because early awareness of the disease helps to arrest
its spread and makes treatments generally more effective.
We also work with NGOs and local authorities to help
remove the stigma attached to those who already have the
disease. Modern treatments mean that a HIV diagnosis
no longer means death. If identified and treated, then a
good standard of life is possible.
We were disappointed by a slight increase in the HIV
prevalence rate in 2014 and in the number of positive
cases among employees – which rose from 95 in 2013
to 109 in 2014. However, it is encouraging to see the
prevalence rate at Kibali drop after an increase last year
and that, at 11.3%, it is now some way below the baseline
recorded in 2010.
The business of gold mining
presents a number of health
hazards and we undertake a
wide range of healthcare
programmes to fit the specific circumstances of each
department and operation.
Occupational
health
At group level, there were 27 new cases of occupational
health conditions in 2014. These were all related to
hearing impairments and all from two specific sites,
Tongon (9) and Loulo (18).
Our occupational health work aims to both reduce
exposure to risks and to pro-actively spot potential
health issues through regular medical consultations
for employees. These consultations monitor for issues
such as heavy metal in the blood, silicosis, tuberculosis
and hearing issues and include biological and radiation
testing for those departments with exposure to chemicals
or other hazards. Our employees must all pass minimum
fitness standards.
Each workplace undertakes a risk assessment to identify
occupational health issues and we use appropriate
equipment and engineering controls to minimise risk.
All staff are provided with relevant personal protective
equipment from high visibility vests, safety glasses, ear
defenders to helmets and safety boots. Our occupational
health processes are certified against the OHSAS 18001
health and safety standards.
First aid training is also regularly provided and our
underground projects have two specially trained mine
rescue teams on site with specialist equipment.
We also seek to use the latest technology where possible
and improvements to equipment in 2014 have included
the introduction of quieter fans to reduce the risk of
industrial deafness.
EMPLOYEE HIV PREVALENCE RATE BY MINE1
%
Baseline
2014
2013
2012
2011
Morila
0.6 (2000)
0.6
1.9
1.4
1.5
Loulo
0.7-1.3 (2005)
1.1
1
1
-
Gounkoto
0.7 (2011)
0.3
1
1
-
Tongon
3.2 (2011)
0.8
2.7
152
-
17.7-37.6 (2010)
11.3
12.8
11.5
16.8
3
3
4
6
Kibali
Group
1
2
Number of positive cases x 100/total of VCT.
The relatively high HIV prevalence rate at Tongon in 2012 is due
to an unrepresentative sample that was taken among patients
that the doctor judged to already have a high possibility of
infection.
Randgold Resources Annual Report 2014
137