The Nevada Mining Association (NVMA) released its 2013 Safety Awards honorees as the organization continues to provide mine operations throughout the state with valuable best practices and strategies for fostering safety on mine sites. The 2013 honorees are a select group whose efforts emulate the industry-wide motto to send every mining employee home safe and healthy after every shift.

“The mining industry’s complete devotion to safety is something I’m proud to discuss with individuals statewide on a daily basis,” said Tim Crowley, NVMA president. “From implementing the latest safety technologies to monitoring the everyday health of employees as they work their shifts, mining operators throughout Nevada have fully committed themselves to making safety their highest priority, and the NVMA would like to thank these devoted organizations and individuals through our 2013 Safety Awards.”

The NVMA Safety Awards are given annually to both mine operators and individual mining employees in several categories, and data for the 2013 awards is based on performance in the 2012 calendar year.

Operator awards are given to the top three mines in designated categories based on their safety rate, which is calculated by a formula factoring the number of employees on site, number of man hours for that year and penalties for lost-time accidents, number of reportable incidents and lost-time days. Individual awards are selected based on nominations only, and those nominations are judged on both the personal safety record of the individual and that person’s involvement in advocating safety in the workplace.

This year, 19 awards will be given to mine operators and 38 awards will be given to individual employees during an event at NVMA’s annual convention in Lake Tahoe on Saturday, Sept. 7. The full list of NVMA 2013 Safety Awards winners can be found here.