If you’re running a mining company, you’ll know your business is a crucial one that many other businesses and end-users rely on. You’ll also know, or you should know, at least, that it can be a dangerous business to run and potentially one of the most dangerous in the world.
That means safety always has to be a top priority for you as the owner – you need to make sure everything you do in your business is factoring safety in first, whether that’s for you, your employees, or members of the public. With that in mind, here are some of the things to do and think about to make sure your mining company is safe.
Proper Safety Training
Perhaps the most important thing you can do to ensure your mining company is a safe one is to give your team proper and comprehensive safety training. That means absolutely everyone, from the miners themselves to the top level of management – if everyone knows what it takes to stay safe, it will be easier to keep to the rules and check that everyone’s doing what they’re meant to be doing.
The thing to remember about making sure training is done well is that it benefits everyone, and it’s definitely not something you can just ignore or assume everyone already knows all about. Regular training sessions, safety drills, and workshops can all be part of your training so that everyone can stay informed and up-to-date on all aspects of how to stay safe when working in the mining sector.
Risk Assessments
You’ll also need to carry out risk assessments for every element of your mining business, from the mining itself to how the office areas are run and kept tidy. Remember, you might focus on the mining tasks, and that does make sense because they will be the most dangerous, but that doesn’t mean other risk assessments can be ignored – anything can be dangerous if it’s not taken care of, and a good risk assessment will tell you how to take care of it.
Once any problems and hazards have been spotted and identified from your risk assessments, you can work out how to manage them. The best way to do that is to remove the risk altogether, and that will certainly be possible in some areas, but in others, when it’s a risk that comes with a job that has to be done, minimising the risk is the next best thing. Plus, you can’t just do one risk assessment and never do another; things change all the time, so it has to be a regular job.
Equipment Maintenance
Mining equipment is obviously going to play an important part in your business, and it’s going to get used on an everyday basis – that’s why you have to keep a check on it and ensure it’s in good condition and working in the way it’s meant to. If you notice any issues, whether it’s in a big piece of machinery or something smaller like mining core trays, you can make repairs or replace the faulty equipment before it causes any safety (or efficiency) problems.
It’s also wise to regularly service your equipment so that problems are caught early and don’t lead to anything bigger that’s more difficult to deal with further down the road.