Over the next month, I will be writing about a shift in mining safety law that many senior executives are still absorbing, and why the typical response will not be enough. The regulator's question after a serious incident was often framed, roughly, as: 'Did you have a system?' Procedures, attestations, and audit cycles defended the operator and the individual officer. They are still necessary but no longer sufficient. What is changing is the level at which accountability is assessed in...

More often than we would like, we encounter the following: digital twins in control rooms, predictive maintenance on major fleets, and short-interval control systems streaming KPIs onto large displays. Each initiative was supported by a business case promising increased output or reduced cost per ton. Yet the gains are often far smaller than expected, and in some cases drift backwards over time. This concern is now prominent enough to feature in EY’s annual mining risk rankings under the...

Three workforce statistics from three continents. Curtin University's MARS Study of more than 2,500 Western Australian mining workers found that one in three is emotionally exhausted, one in three intends to leave the industry, and managers score worst on both. South African mining: 29% of workers report moderate to severe anxiety or depression. Xinjiang coal: 20% screen for severe occupational stress, with leadership again hit hardest. These workforce trends are not just HR issues; they...