Underground Support Solutions (PTY) LTD, (USS), is a company that emanated from Underground Solutions (PTY) LTD, (US), servicing the coal mining industry since August 2006. Services include: Conveyor Belt Maintenance (including Construction and Reclaiming), Secondary Roof Support (including Pillar Wrapping), Air Support with gophers, Mechanical Support with hydraulic/electric roof bolters, Wire Mesh Installation on hanging roof and rib sides, and High Wall Support.

With a Head Office situated in Witbank and a satellite office/workshop in Trichardt, USS is a supporting structure to 9 business units across several mine shafts in Mpumalanga.

The company has a BBEEE rating of level 1, thus 135% recognition as a generic enterprise with 52% black shareholding, of which 48% is black female shareholding.

USS Vision

To deliver first class resources and innovation to an extensive underground coal mine customer base in South Africa through a concise, strategic service model.

USS Mission Statement

Underground Support Solutions offers underground coal mine service delivery through zero harm to our employees and customers, continuous employee development, innovations to a high standard of compliance, ownership, and social responsibility, to make a difference in the environment and economy.

Safety, Health, Environmental & Quality Policy
(SHEQ)

The management of Underground Support Solutions recognises
the impact that all our activities may have on people.

Our Commitment is to:

  • Comply with all health, safety and environmental legislation, regulations and other applicable requirements.

  • Comply with client SHEQ system requirements, with our own requirements being the absolute minimum standard.

  • Respectfully implement and maintain, as far as reasonably practicable, the activities of the company in such a manner as to prevent harm or damage to persons and property.

  • Continually improve our SHEQ performance.

  • Promoting dialogue with stakeholders about SHEQ.

  • Prevention of injuries and ill-health.

We will Achieve this by:

  • Learning from incidents to prevent reoccurance.
  • Ensuring our systems are audited and identifying improvement opportunities to drive better SHEQ performance.
  • Informing and training all employees on SHEQ best practices.
  • Identifying hazards, assessing risks and implementing effective controls to prevent causes and mitigate possible consequences.
  • Responding effectively to emergencies invloving our people, operations and products.
  • Benchmarking best practices nationally.
  • Setting and periodically reviewing SHEQ objectives, targets and communicating progress.
  • Making policies available to the public on request.

USS SHEQ Targets Include

Health and Safety

• ZERO Fatalities
• ZERO High-severity incidents
• First Aid Cases below 0.25
• Recordable Workday Case below 0.13
• Lost workday case below 0.15
• Less than 4 reportable incidents

Quality

• Achieve exceptional service level agreement on all belts
• Engineering availability to be more than 94% and underground audit to be more than 93%
• Below 1% roof bolt re-installations
• 100-110% of support target to be achieved every shift

Morale

• Reduce absenteeism to below 3%
• Skills development and up-skilling of current employees by 20%
• Increase Women in mining to 15%
• Every employee to have company logo on overalls

Environmental

• Minimise environmental impacts
• Have full alignment with all our customers environmental policies and procedures

USS employs over 1000 employees, including a Production Manager, several
Mine Supervisors, Shift Bosses/Miners (with explosive mine blasting
certificates), Fitters, Electricians, Diesel Mechanics, Competent A’s,
Competent B Operators (Load Haul Dumpers, Flameproof Tractors, Light-
Duty Vehicles and Dyna’s, Roof Bolters, Gophers, Bobcats), Safety Officers,
Full-Time and Part-Time Safety Representatives, and Administrators.