AngloAmerican, AngloGold Ashanti, Harmony Gold Mining and Teck Resources, plus the Minerals Council of South Africa, teamed up with visual health and safety communication specialist Jincom to create the IMS Hub.

Jincom described it as an online library of visual safety tools, noting teams could comprise multilingual and multicultural workers who faced communication barriers, while others could have low literacy levels.

Companies would upload material about two hazards at their operations, which would then be transformed "into a suite of simplified and visualised tools" which partners and their employees could access.

Miners could use the hub's generic version or have the tools adapted for their organisation, Jincom said.

"This is a collaboration by industry, for industry," hub co-founder Stephen Eichstadt said.

"For too long have I witnessed the industry working in silos, individually investing substantial effort and resources in essentially just duplicating work already developed by their peers."

He said the hub would change that.

"The content we are developing with Jincom and contributing to the hub will no doubt add massive amounts of value to the greater industry and make a substantial impact in reducing industry fatalities across the world," Anglo American head of group safety, operational risk and assurance Michael Parker said.