OFFICIAL Africa and Asia, while Europe, North America, and Australia have demonstrated that low fatality rates can be achieved through strong geotechnical controls and systematic risk management. 3. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PRODUCTION AND FATALITY RATE According to the global findings from data market research (Reichl, et al., 2023), there is no simple relationship between underground production quantities and fatality rates across continents. Some regions have very high amounts of produces yet also have very low quantities of fatalities recorded, while some regions have lower amounts of produce but suffer from increased levels of fatality rates. This suggests that the level of risk associated with a fatality is primarily determined by how the mining is conducted (as indicated in Table 3) and not how much has been produced. The fatality rate does not correlate to the volume of production (as demonstrated with global underground production volumes), but instead strongly correlate to the depth, stress regime, level of mechanisation, quality of geotechnical controls, and strength and enforcement of governance and safety standards. The pattern of fatality rates related to the operational level of control has been shown when comparing regionalised mine safety data provided by the ICMM against volume of global production (ICMM, 2024). Table 3 - Safety level regionalised at global underground production (ICMM, 2024) Region Production Fatality rate1 Level Relationship Africa Medium Very high 15 – 25 Depth & stress dominate Asia Very high High 10 - 20 Governance moderates Latin America Medium– high High 8 - 15 Informality amplifies Europe Low Low 2 - 5 Exposure limited North America Medium Low 2 - 4 Control decouples Oceania (Australia) Medium Very low 1 - 3 Mechanisation eliminates exposure 1 Fatality Rate [deaths per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers (FTE) per year] 4. GLOBAL SUMMARY OF UNDERGROUND MINING SAFETY STRATEGIES Whether they occur in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe, North America or Oceania (Australia), underground mining safety performance is influenced more by management of risk than by a region’s level of production. The highest risk in Africa comes from operating very deep and high-stress mines with high seismicity. Safety in Asia is, therefore, focused on controlling the risks that are unavoidable to the nature of mining operations via extensive use of ground support, continuous seismic monitoring, and critical control management with little advancement. A similarly high-risk region, Asia has the largest number of miners in the world, and its focus is on reducing miner exposure (i.e. closing unsafe mines), improving production methods, enhancing gas and ventilation controls, and implementing national Standards. Latin America, on the other hand, has two
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