Mining

Under the Mines Safety and Inspection Act 1994 (WA), there are specific reporting requirements for:

• Accidents involving injury to persons
• Occurrences (commonly referred to as incidents).

Please note: A monthly status report must be submitted whether or not there has been a reportable accident during the month.

For an overview of reporting requirements download the reporting an accident or incident poster. Detailed information is available in the guideline below.

Accident and incident reporting guideline

Resources Safety’s accident and incident reporting guideline will help employers and employees to better understand their reporting duties. It is for use by anyone responsible for reporting accidents and incidents on mine sites and exploration leases.

Reporting forms and procedures

Please note: Reporting forms are not available on our website but can be requested from the AXTAT Manager:

Phone:  08 9358 8101
Email:   axtatmanager@dmp.wa.gov.au.

How to complete an accident report form

The procedure for completing AXTAT report forms has been prepared to assist in the completion of accident report forms for mining and exploration activities in Western Australia. It should be read in conjunction with Resources Safety’s Accident and incident reporting guideline.

These procedures must be followed to ensure the uniformity and reliability of data collected for Resources Safety’s databases.

How to complete an occurrence report form

The procedure for completing an occurrence report form has been prepared to assist in the completion of occurrence report forms for mining and exploration activities in Western Australia. It should be read in conjunction with Resources Safety’s Accident and incident reporting guideline.

These procedures must be followed to ensure the uniformity and reliability of data collected for Resources Safety’s databases.

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To view all Safety bulletins refer to the mining publications section. The dangerous goods safety publications section also contains Safety bulletins that may be applicable to mining operations.

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The latest Significant incident report is provided below. To view all Significant Incident Reports refer to the mining publications section. The dangerous goods safety publications section also contains Significant Incident Reports that may be applicable to mining operations.

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The document below provides useful information on how an investigation is run.  It is not intended to be a detailed ‘how-to-do-it’ manual. Rather, it aims to assist safety and health representatives to understand the principles involved in conducting an investigation and provide procedural hints should they become involved in an investigation, including:

• What to look for
• Conducting an investigation
• Principles of investigation
• Checklist to establish the facts
• Checklist to determine recommendations and conclusions.

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The data obtained from mining and exploration operators (referred to above) is entered into Resources Safety’s AXTAT and incident reports databases.

The AXTAT database is used to record and retrieve information about lost time and disabling injuries resulting from accidents in the workplace. It is a useful tool for identifying:

• Those unsafe work practices causing frequent injury
• The predominant types of accidents in particular occupational groups, workplaces or both
• The frequency of injury to particular parts of the body
• The frequency of particular types of injury sustained in accidents
• The activities being pursued at the time accidents occur.

The incident reports database is used to record and retrieve information about incidents in the workplace, and provides a useful tool for identifying trends in reported incidents and assessing risk.

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Each month accident and injury details are reported to Resources Safety by mine managers, as are the number of persons employed (including contractor employees) and the hours worked during the month. The data is provided in an effort to aid the development of injury prevention strategies.

From this data, Resources Safety produces the annual Safety Performance in the Western Australian Mineral Industry annual reports which include statistics on lost time injuries and more recently, disabling injuries. To view the annual reports refer to the publications section.

Posters providing summary statistics on safety performance in the Western Australian Mineral Industry are also available in the publications section.

Toolbox presentations

The following PowerPoint presentations are made available for non-commercial use (e.g. toolbox meetings) subject to the condition that the content is not altered without permission from Resources Safety.

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The Western Australian mining fatalities database contains information on workplace fatalities recorded in Western Australian mines and the results of inquests relating to them.

Data can be sorted by category (underground or surface), commodity (eg base metals, coal), date, fiscal year, occupation, rider/no rider or status (preliminary report, intermediate report, final report).

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