Risk Management has been applied relatively slowly in the
mining industry. Except for the risk concept application in
financial considerations, the application of Risk Management in
safety management has been far from satisfactory. When applied
it was treated in a global occupational safety and health sense.
Regardless of how much the mining industry has progressed over
the years it is still, in many respects, `state-of-the-art' business.
The safety aspects of mining are well known and yet little
understood by the public. Regardless of what has been achieved
so far and how much effort has been put into it, mining is
regarded as an unsafe and somehow rude business. Safety
records of the mining industry vary from State-to-State. Latest
mining related disasters in PNG and Queensland and some other
fatal accidents support this public perception. They purport a
need for change in managing safety in the mining industry. The latest mining fatalities have raised the issue: What must be
done to improve safety standards? Duty of care, risk
management and system engineering concepts can provide some
answers. Risk Management principles which have been
advocated for some time provide many answers and explanations
and can make safety management more constructive and
workable. What has been missing so far is that this concept has
neither been applied nor has been modified for its practical
application and purpose on a larger scale. A risk management approach to the management of safety and
health in the mining industry is addressed, herein. This approach
does not attempt to provide the solution. It does, however,
provide a basic understanding of what Risk and Risk
Management are all about. Rational management of risk is addressed in the life cycle and
system contexts. A system of continuous improvement is
applied. There is always a chain of events, outcome, exposure,
consequence(s), and consequence(s) value(s). It means that
development of an event takes place in time and space. Dynamic
circumstances have been created in or within the system. It is a
decision-making process designed to provide a methodology
which is directed not toward a mathematical model but toward
easy use and application in dynamic working environment, by
decision-makers who can be anybody from either a risk taker or a
risk creator. The emphasis is placed not only on arriving at the
best practical, possible and fair decision but also on structured
and systematic acquisition of knowledge about the system, its
hazards and associated risks, hence increasing the decision
maker's ability to manage the decision-making process related to
the management of risk.