A recently released whitepaper — The High Cost of Disruption in Mining Report — highlights the financial impacts of neglecting risk mitigation strategies in the mining industry.
The paper, by FM Global, emphasises the need for robust risk strategies, especially in today’s challenging environment marked by climate risks, supply chain vulnerabilities, and ESG responsibilities, where even minor oversights can lead to billions in losses.
Key findings from the report include the importance of a data-driven Business Impact Assessment (BIA) process to quantify and prioritise risks accurately, as well as the need for tactical recovery strategies tailored for each critical function to ensure swift bounce-back after a disruption.
Eric Jones, Vice President and Global Manager of Risk Management Consulting at FM Global emphasised the common gaps in risk mitigation strategies among mining companies and highlighted real-world examples of disruptions faced by Australian mining operations.
The report underscores the complexity of the mining industry, which is operationally complex, highly mechanised, and often located in remote areas with vulnerable supply chains.
It highlights that a single point of failure can have a catastrophic effect on operations, as demonstrated by recent wildfires in Canada that disrupted mining activities and cost the sector millions of dollars.
The report recommends investing in risk mitigation to build resilience against future disruptions and protect against the full impact of such events.