Consultation on Improving Health and Safety Hazard Management in the Underground Mining Industry

Public consultation was held in April-June 2008 on the discussion paper: Improving health and safety hazard management in the underground mining industry.

The public consultation process set out a broad range of options for improving safety, and followed the Department of Labour’s review of the legislative and regulatory framework for underground mining.  The review’s context is the inherently hazardous nature of underground mining and its potential for catastrophic events, and public concern arising from two fatalities in 2006.

Consultation has now closed and a report is available that summarises the public feedback on the discussion paper.

The options in the discussion paper that had the best support were:

• Improving health and safety management systems
• Raising the minimum qualification level for managers of small mines, and
• Ensuring mine owners receive better health and safety technical guidance.

The Government will use the feedback gained from this consultation to develop further measures to improve health and safety hazard management systems in the underground mining industry.

Downloads

Report – summary of public submissions

• View the Summary of Public Submissions on Discussion Paper Improving health and safety hazard management in the underground mining industry[HTML]
• Download a PDF version of the Summary of Public Submissions on Discussion Paper Improving health and safety hazard management in the underground mining industry[PDF, 32 Pages, 271kB]

Discussion paper – the original discussion document that summarised the issues and was the basis for consultation

• View the Improving health and safety hazard management in the Underground Mining Industry discussion paper. [HTML]
• Download a PDF version of the Improving health and safety hazard management in the Underground Mining Industry [PDF 44 pages, 540 kB]

Further information

• If you wish to request copies of the submissions, email the Department of Labour on the following link: standards@dol.govt.nz

Please contact:
Kathy Drysdale, Senior Policy Advisor,
Health and Safety Policy, Workplace Group
kathy.drysdale@dol.govt.nz
ph 04 915 4520