Fourth BHP worker dies in five weeks

Employees yesterday received an extra safety briefing in lieu of performing their normal activities after a 19-year-old contractor at its Yandi mine was killed in a vehicle accident on Thursday.

Since July 30, BHP has reported four deaths at its global operations. Three were at its WA iron ore operations - two of them contractors at the Yandi mine - and one was at a coalmine in South Africa.

In the previous financial year, BHP reported 11 fatalities, five of which occurred in a helicopter crash in Angola in November. It had reported three deaths a year in the three preceding years, during which Chip Goodyear was chief executive.

The deteriorating safety record since Marius Kloppers took the top job in October has not escaped his notice.

"In this new financial year it is essential that we take action to deliver on our most fundamental commitment to ensuring that each of us goes home safely at the end of each day," he told staff in a memo in July. "This is at the very core of our objectives for the coming year. Neither production nor financial results must ever come before safety."

In a deeply emotional moment at BHP's annual meeting in November, Mr Kloppers said he had been "personally devastated" by the helicopter crash in Angola.

Among the dead was BHP's chief operating officer in Angola, David Hopwood, a long-time friend of Mr Kloppers.

BHP's takeover target Rio Tinto has not been immune from deaths this calendar year. It lost 10 employees and contractors in a helicopter crash near its La Granja copper project in Peru and another employee at a talc operation in France.

Before this year, Rio had generally experienced fewer fatalities at its operations than BHP. It lost three employees a year at its managed operations in 2006 and 2007 and two in 2005.

The last death at Rio's Australian operations was in 2004, and not in the iron ore division.

BHP tends to use more contractors at its Pilbara operations than Rio. The two who died at Yandi recently were employed by contractor HWE Mining, which operates the mine on behalf of BHP.

Bonuses to divisional heads at Rio and BHP are in part based on safety records. Rio makes clear each year which divisional heads met, exceeded or missed their safety targets, but BHP does not.