Johannesburg — MINING titan Anglo American had achieved a "distinct improvement" in its mining fatalities so far this year, CEO Cynthia Carroll said yesterday.

There were nine deaths in the group, of which eight were in SA, compared with 17 in the same period last year, she said.

Carroll was speaking at the Anglo Tripartite Safety Summit, a meeting of the government, unions and mining companies organised by Anglo to unify efforts to improve safety in SA.

Soon after her appointment last year, Carroll took the drastic step of closing shafts at subsidiary Angloplat's Rustenburg operations on a rolling basis to retrain employees in safety after a spate of deaths at the mine.

Her insistence on zero fatalities was one reason for the departure of Angloplat CEO Ralph Havenstein a year ago. Many domestic miners believe zero harm is not feasible, given the depths and associated seismicity of SA's gold and platinum mines.

Anglo's summit was held the same day Gold Fields stated that falls of ground had killed three workers at its Driefontein mine and one at its South Deep mine.

Carroll said 29 people died in Anglo's global operations in the first half last year, but this figure fell to 11 in the second half.

Although 32 deaths in SA for last year out of 40 group operations was a record low, it was still "shockingly high. We need to be united in creating a culture of care, respect, trust and responsibility," she said.

Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica said the 10% increase in industry fatalities between 2006 and last year was "totally unacceptable" and a new culture of health and safety had to be introduced.

Although new legislation, the Mine Health and Safety Act, was introduced in 1997 and the relevant institutions had been restructured, Sonjica said there were still a number of concerns.

These included the fact that there were different interpretations of what constituted risk assessments, and these were often tailored to achieve a pre-determined outcome.

She was concerned about the shortage of skills in health and safety disciplines.

National Union of Mineworkers president Senzeni Zokwana said training should focus on understanding what miners' working conditions demanded.