Guidelines released to make submitting mines and tunnels plans easier
New guidelines have been released to make it easier to prepare and submit mines and tunnel plans to regulators.
The Guide to Completing and Submitting Plans for Mines and Tunnels, jointly developed by NZP&M and WorkSafe New Zealand, incorporates extensive feedback from the mining industry and replaces interim guidelines released in December 2015.
“We aim to provide industry with consistent guidance that improves the process for submitting mines and tunnel plans,” says Marcos Pelenur, National Manager Minerals.
“The guide provides simple checklists and tables explaining how the plans need to be prepared, what information to include, and when they need to be provided to each regulator.
“Bringing the various forms of information together into an easily digestible format makes it much easier for operators to meet the regulators’ requirements.”
Mr Pelenur says the guide will save mining operators time and effort.
“It will also improve the quality and consistency of the information we receive, which we need to properly regulate our national resources and the health and safety of our workplaces.”
The guide is a further response to the Royal Commission on the Pike River Coal Mine Tragedy, which identified areas for improving the regulation of mine plans. It was prepared as part of a wider project that will also deliver an online repository to make historical mine plans available to the public. This is expected to be delivered later in 2017.
View the Guide to Completing and Submitting Plans for Mines and Tunnels.