Mining

Mining plays a huge role in contributing to the Australian economy and keeping Australia ‘on track’ when it comes to generating revenue.  With Australia’s high labour costs, world class safety regulations and distinctive geology, the importance placed on safety and mining research by governments and business, results in a highly efficient, safe and advanced mining industry.

The fact is that mines simply must be safe and efficient, if Australia is to continue to thrive in this industry. 

The heavy responsibility of Safety falls on the Mine Manager, and in partnership with our team here at R2A, we have assisted mines to identify and manage credible and critical safety issues including:

• Unstable ground including seismicity
• Inrush
• Fire / explosion
• Bad air / atmosphere
• Large mobile equipment
• Entanglement.

At R2A, we work with Mine Managers to develop user friendly risk registers, using threat-barrier diagrams and safety case arguments, to ensure all practical precautions are taken to minimise risk.

The presence of risk can significantly affect the overall availability of a mine.  We have developed an availability profiling technique addressing issues from a strategic viewpoint.  We determine the actual effective availability in the context of all credible critical issues and system characteristics.  This process is particularly useful when acquiring or disposing of an asset.

Our director, Richard Robinson was a member of the Independent Blasting Audit Team for the Department of Minerals & Energy WA (Western Mining Corporations Nickel & Gold), 1999.

For further information, please contact us.

Project Overview

Credible Critical Safety Issues Risk Register Review

According to NSW Mine Regulations, it is a statutory requirement for mining organisations to have a risk register.  This risk register must include 10 prescribed hazards.  Mining company, Perilya had an extensive existing hazard risk register, however due to its size and complexity, it is practically difficult to use.

To address this issue, R2A applied an alternate approach to make Perilya’s safety register useful.  We achieved this by identifying the credible critical safety issues and the current precautions in place to mitigate such risks.  This was then used to ensure current precautions were appropriate and to test if further precautions were required.  This process demonstrated due diligence by confirming that all sensible practicable precautions were in place, based on the balance of the significance of the risk versus the effort required to reduce it.