Fatality Prevention
Responsible mining and metals companies are unwavering in their commitment to the health, safety and wellbeing of workers, their families, local communities, and broader society.
Mining is hazardous, but it can be done safely. Despite widespread adoption of safety management systems, fatalities and near misses still occur. This is not inevitable. With strong leadership and rigorous risk management, accidents are preventable.
From chief executives to frontline supervisors, leaders play a critical role in creating a culture of safety. Their visible commitment sets the tone across an organisation and helps embed a safety-first mindset at every level.
Fatality Prevention: Eight lessons learned
Health and safety must be embedded in every operation, decision, and process—with the aim of eliminating fatalities, injuries and occupational disease. ICMM members pursue continuous improvement in safety performance, guided by the belief that even one fatality is one too many.
Drawing on lessons from across the membership, ICMM has identified eight insights that are crucial for preventing fatalities and supporting a sustained move towards zero harm:
- A zero fatalities mindset: The industry has shifted its focus to fatality prevention. This focus must be sustained while continuing efforts to reduce all injuries.
- Safety leadership at all levels: Visible, consistent leadership is essential. Where it is absent, we must build a culture of safety and work to embed it.
- Consistent safety through change: Safety must remain a core value—unaffected by commodity cycles, restructuring, divestments or joint ventures.
- Learning from the past: “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” We must proactively apply critical controls to known fatal risks.
- Risk management capability: Fatality prevention hinges on effective risk management. We must improve how we assess risk and address variations in risk tolerance across operations.
- Reliable critical controls: Fatal risks must be eliminated or controlled using reliable systems, rather than relying solely on procedures or individual behaviours.
- Fall of ground: Deeper, high-stress mines demand continued innovation to protect against rock bursts and ground falls.
- Prevention is better than cure: Occupational disease causes more fatalities than previously recognised. We need different controls to manage these risks—proactively and holistically.
These lessons offer a framework for embedding a safety-first mindset into governance, management, and operational culture across the industry.
Strengthening operational capacity
To support the journey towards zero fatalities, ICMM has developed practical resources to address systemic health and safety challenges:
- Safety data benchmarking: ICMM publishes annual safety data to promote transparency and learning across the industry. While progress is evident, the data suggests we need to deepen our understanding of what drives meaningful change—and improve how we learn from failure.
- An approach to contractor management: This resource proposes a shift from transactional contractor relationships to a “delivery partner” model. It includes an eight-step engagement process and a maturity framework to build trusted, two-way partnerships that support safer outcomes.
- Leadership Matters: Managing Fatal Risk: Targeted at on-site managers, this companion guide offers diagnostic prompts based on globally recognised risk management principles to help identify and address gaps in safety systems.
- Leadership Matters: The Elimination of Fatalities: This guide supports senior leaders in building safer workplaces—through their personal commitment and through systems and structures that reinforce safety culture.
