Taking a Moment for Safety

Published on May 21, 2018

Think of all of the things you spend five minutes on during a day. Driving in the car, talking on the phone, responding to emails, checking social media, watching TV, surfing the web, eating, shopping, working out…. Truly, the list could go on and on. At Midas Gold, we want our employees to take five minutes out of every day to focus on safety.

Last June, we added a new layer to our company’s safety program called Take Five. As the name of the program alludes, Take Five is designed to help employees take a few minutes to think through tasks, identify safety risks and take the necessary steps to mitigate any potential hazards. As part of the program, each employee who works up at the site was given a small notebook filled with Take Five cards. The cards have a series of simple yes or no questions on the front for employees to fill out. The questions range from “Can I slip or trip on anything?” to “Do I need a permit for this activity?” On the back of the cards, employees are given space to identify the possible challenges and their plans to proactively avoid them.

Our team finds the cards most useful when they are performing tasks outside their normal routines. This might include geotechnical drilling in the winter, performing maintenance on the communications tower, building snow bridges or annual maintenance on our larger equipment. In the first four months of 2018, we’ve collectively completed more than 90 Take Five sheets. During this same period of time, we are proud we haven’t had any safety incidents to report.

Take Five doesn’t replace our existing safety programs, it complements the work our teams are already doing on the ground every day to keep one another, the environment and wildlife safe. We are proud to be taking extra steps to protect the Stibnite Gold Project and make sure our employees make it home safely each day.  Will you do the same?