Rapid Response is a global crisis communication system with trained teams at each of the site, regional and corporate levels. This structure provides for an immediate response capability to address potentially sensitive issues in health and safety, security, environment, social and political areas. Activating these teams quickly helps to minimize the incident's impact, prevent escalation and allows the company to resume normal operations.

Emergency management is part of our HSLP Management System that requires all operations to have emergency response plans and to conduct ongoing skills training and exercises to assess their workers' readiness to respond to actual emergencies. The primary response techniques and training include such activities as mine rescue, handling hazardous materials, firefighting and providing agreed-upon local aid.

If existing controls fail and lead to an incident that could significantly harm employees, the community or the environment, all sites have trained Rapid Response teams to mobilize emergency response resources at the site, regional and corporate levels.

"The Rapid Response System includes an online training module that trains team members on the fundamentals of Rapid Response. The module helps expedite training and ensures a more consistent approach to learning. Also, we continue to conduct mock scenarios at mine sites to allow local Rapid Response teams to test and refine their response capabilities."

Safety Alert

Newmont's Safety Alert system notifies all operations of significant health and safety incidents globally within 72 hours. This quick dissemination of information helps all areas assess and prevent potentially similar incidents at their sites.

Depending on the nature of the incident, sites have seven to 21 days to complete a detailed investigation, identify causes and remedy the problem. Our global operations reported 78 Safety Alerts in 2004, 60 in 2005, 62 in 2006, 82 in 2007, 94 in 2008, 88 in 2009, and 68 in 2010. The past increase in Safety Alerts is a result of our increased Leadership focus on reporting, while the more recent decline likely results from more intensive review and follow-up. This data reflects Newmont's focus on effective incident reporting and safety performance. We believe this is a trend that is consistent with what the industry is seeing as their health and safety programs continue to mature.

As of 2010, the Executive Leadership Team (ELT) provides input on corrective actions and change management for the safety alert program.

Newmont also tracks potential fatal occurrences (PFOs) or incidents where serious injuries or fatalities could have occurred. This information is shared globally to ensure similar incidents are prevented. We review PFOs each month with our Leadership Teams, set performance metrics for improvement and ensure people are held accountable for agreed actions to prevent recurrence. In 2010, we had 47 PFOs.

Also in 2010, Newmont's emergency response and rescue teams won various mine rescue competitions and collaborated with peers to share best practices.

In Australia, emergency responders joined forces with Barrick for a weeklong training and response exercise. In Nevada, mine rescue teams from the Carlin and Midas operations placed first in the Northeastern Nevada Regional Underground Mine Rescue Contest, and were named best in the state. They went on to take second, third and fourth place at the 2010 Metal/Nonmetal National Underground Mine Rescue Content, sponsored by the Mine Safety and Health Administration. Additionally, teams from Twin Creeks place third and Carlin placed fifth at the 30th International Surface Mine Competition held in Gillette, Wyoming.

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