WASHINGTON, DC – The Industrial Minerals Association – North America (IMA-NA) announced today the companies and mining operations that will receive its safety recognition awards. IMA-NA Chairman Doug Smith and IMA-NA President Mark Ellis presented the awards at the IMA-NA’s Spring Meeting. The safety recognition awards program is run in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). Ten companies and three individual mining operations were honored.
[bsa_pro_ad_space id=26]
The IMA-NA Safety Achievement Award recognizes the best reportable injury rate for an individual IMA-NA member company by size category for the preceding calendar year, in this case, 2018. The award criteria evaluate a company’s safety performance at all of its mines. This year’s winners include:
- Ciner Wyoming LLC
Atlanta, Georgia
Large Category (700,000 or more employee hours)
(877,823 hours)
- Old Hickory Clay Company
Mayfield, Kentucky
Medium Category (Fewer than 700,000 but more than 100,000 employee hours)
(124,917 hours)
- Vanderbilt Minerals, LLC
Norwalk, Connecticut
Small Category (Fewer than 100,000 employee hours)
(63,071 hours)
[bsa_pro_ad_space id=39]
“The safety performance of these IMA members is truly inspiring,” said IMA-NA’s Mark Ellis. “Large Category Honoree Ciner Resources worked 877,823 employee hours with 2 injuries for an injury rate of 0.46 per 200,000 employee work-hours. Medium Category Honoree Old Hickory Clay Company had zero injuries while working 124,917 hours employee hours, for an injury rate of 0.00 per 200,000 employee work-hours. Small Category Honoree Vanderbilt Minerals also had a zero-injury rate, while working 63,071 employee work-hours. To put that in perspective, the injury rate for all metal and nonmetal mines in 2018 was 1.73.” “MSHA and IMA-NA strive to help the industry achieve its ultimate goal – sending safe and healthy miners home to their families, every shift, every day,” said Douglas Smith, IMA-NA’s Chairman and Vice President & General Manager, North American Ceramics, for Imerys (Roswell, Georgia). “We’re pleased to recognize IMA-NA member companies that have compiled excellent safety records and who serve as examples for other companies.”
Also recognized are three individual IMA-NA-member mining operations for having the best reportable injury rate for the preceding calendar year in each of the previously described size categories. In every case, each mine had zero injuries for a total injury rate of 0.00 per 200,000 employee work-hours. This year’s honorees include:
- Carmeuse Lime & Stone Inc.
Longview Operation
Shelby County, Alabama
Large Category (700,000 or more employee hours)
(305,297 hours)
- Covia Holdings Corporation
Hephzibah Plant
Richmond County, Georgia
Medium Category (Fewer than 700,000 but more than 100,000 employee hours)
(92,967 hours)
- Vanderbilt Minerals, LLC
Balmat Mining Operation
St. Lawrence County, New York
Small Category (Fewer than 100,000 employee hours)
(43,811 hours)
IMA-NA was formed in April 2002 and represents mineral producer members and associate members providing goods and services to the industrial minerals industry. Membership is comprised of companies that are leaders in the ball clay, barite, bentonite, borates, calcium carbonate, diatomite, feldspar, industrial sand, kaolin, soda ash (trona), talc, wollastonite and other industrial minerals industries. IMA-NA is the principal trade association representing the industrial minerals industry in North America. To learn more, visit http://www.ima-na.org.
