Emergency planning
What is a mine emergency?
An emergency at a mine is due to an actual or imminent occurrence, such as fire, explosion, accident or flooding, that has resulted in the death of, or injury to, a person, or is endangering or threatening to endanger the life or physical well-being of a person at a mine.
What are my duties as a person conducting a business or undertaking?
All mines are required to have an Emergency Plan. The plan is a principal control plan under the Work Health and Safety (Mines and Petroleum Sites) Regulation 2022 and forms part of the safety management system of the mine. The plan must include emergency procedures, as well as training and testing of the plan.
Lessons learned from past mine emergencies have highlighted the need to establish and maintain relationships between the mine operators and emergency services. Some mines are required to carry out consultation with emergency services and others in the preparation of their Emergency Plan and the arrangements around testing the plan.
Useful links
Legislation
- Clause 43 - Work Health and Safety Regulations 2017
- Clause 91 and Schedule 7 of the Work Health and Safety (Mines and Petroleum Sites) Regulation 2022
- State Emergency and Rescue Management Act 1989
- Work Health and Safety (Mines and Petroleum Sites) Act 2013
- Work Health and Safety (Mines and Petroleum Sites) Regulation 2022
- www.legislation.nsw.gov.au
NSW Resources Regulator's guidance material
- Hazardous chemicals
- Fact sheet - Consultation requirements for mines in emergency planning (PDF, 1.04 MB)
- Mine emergency plan consultation record template (DOCX, 75.66 KB) (A companion to the Consultation requirements fact sheet above)
NSW State level emergency plans
Codes of practice
- First aid in the workplace – code of practice
- Labelling of workplace hazardous chemicals – code of practice
- Managing risks of hazardous chemicals in the workplace – code of practice
Emergency planning resources
- Form - Mine emergency plan summary (DOCX, 89.18 KB)
- Fact sheet - Incident notification requirements for mines in emergency planning (PDF, 329.61 KB)
- Small mines and quarries handbook
- NSW Rescue and emergency management
- AS 3745 Planning for emergencies in facilities
- Fire and Rescue NSW emergency plan requirements
- National Emergency Risk Assessment Guidelines
- NSW Office of Emergency Management