Builders Merchants Journal – BMJ Publishing to Builders Merchants and the UK merchanting industry for more than 95 years
Miners at British Gypsum’s Brightling Mine at Robertsbridge in East Sussex, are celebrating after notching up 10 years without an accident.
The 27-strong team includes 20 full time miners, who use drill and blast techniques to extract the gypsum rock.
The company have put a heavy emphasis on health and safety in recent years, resulting in a decrease in the number of accidents of more than three-quarters over the past 5 years. Brightling is the second of the five British Gypsum mine to reach the 10-year milestone. Sister mine at Fauld is the second.
Brightling manager Craig Bryson said: “Mining is an inherently dangerous operation, so underground safety is our first consideration in everything we do. There is an ingrained safety culture at Brightling, where miners look out, not only for their own safety, but for the safety of their colleagues, which is why teamwork is so important. Our objective now is to remain productive, efficient and incident-free for the next ten years.”
