Mining & Resources UK-wide

Set up and run a safe quarry or mine

Operating a quarry or mine — stone, sand, gravel, clay, salt, peat or chemical minerals — is high-hazard work. This is the universal spine: it takes you through your core workplace health and safety duties, the Quarries Regulations 1999 quarry-safety regime, control of respirable crystalline silica and dust under COSHH, work equipment safety, manual handling, fire safety, employers' liability insurance, equality and data protection.

Guide summary

You must meet your legal duty to protect workers and the public at your quarry or mine. Appoint a competent quarry manager, notify HSE before starting, and keep a health and safety document. Control respirable crystalline silica dust to 0.1 mg/m³ or less under COSHH. HSE enforces these rules and can issue unlimited fines or prison sentences.

  • Appoint a competent quarry manager before starting work
  • Notify HSE before opening or resuming a quarry
  • Prepare and review a health and safety document
  • Assess geotechnical risks for excavations and tips
  • Control respirable crystalline silica to 0.1 mg/m³ (8-hour average)
  • Use water suppression or dust extraction to limit dust
  • Provide respiratory protective equipment if controls not enough
  • Carry out health surveillance for workers exposed to silica
  • Risk-assess all work under the Health and Safety at Work Act
  • HSE inspects quarries and can fine you without limit
On this page

Related guides in Compliance & Legal

Every quarry and mine in this division shares the same workplace foundations. Whether you extract stone, sand, gravel, clay, salt, peat or chemical minerals, the duties in this guide apply to running the site and employing people. The pre-operational permits — planning permission, environmental permits, explosives licensing and specialist controls — live in a separate guide.

Workplace health and safety is enforced by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in Great Britain and by the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSENI) in Northern Ireland. Work through the sections below in order.

A. Meet your general health and safety duty

The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 is the foundation. You must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of your employees and of anyone else affected by your work. For a quarry that means risk-assessing the working — face stability, plant movement, dust, access and egress — providing safe systems of work, and training and supervising your people. HSE inspects quarries directly.

B. Comply with the Quarries Regulations 1999

The Quarries Regulations 1999 are the consolidated quarry-safety regime for surface workings in Great Britain. You must appoint a competent quarry manager, notify HSE before starting or resuming a quarry, and prepare and keep under review a health and safety document and geotechnical assessments for excavations and tips. The regulations also cover traffic management, edge protection and tip stability. Underground workings (for example rock-salt mines) are instead governed by the Mines Regulations 2014.

C. Control respirable crystalline silica and dust under COSHH

Respirable crystalline silica (RCS) released when cutting, crushing or processing stone, sand and clay is the defining occupational-health hazard of quarrying. You must assess exposure, apply controls — water suppression, dust extraction, respiratory protective equipment — and carry out health surveillance where required. The workplace exposure limit is 0.1 mg/m³ (8-hour TWA). COSHH also covers other hazardous substances on site, including heavy-metal dust and chemical additives.

D. Keep plant and equipment safe under PUWER

Crushers, screens, conveyors, excavators and haul vehicles must be suitable for the work, maintained, inspected and used only by trained operators under PUWER. Read PUWER alongside LOLER 1998 for any lifting equipment on site.

E. Manage manual handling risks

Avoid, assess and reduce the risk of injury from manual handling — a continuing risk when moving materials, tools and equipment around the quarry.

F. Meet your fire safety duties

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 applies to your workplace premises — offices, workshops, processing plant, fuel and explosive stores. Carry out a fire risk assessment and keep it under review. In Scotland the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 applies; in Northern Ireland the Fire and Rescue Services (Northern Ireland) Order 2006.

G. Hold employers' liability insurance

You must hold at least £5 million of employers' liability insurance once you employ anyone. Display the certificate or make it available electronically.

H. Meet your equality duties

The Equality Act 2010 protects people from discrimination, harassment and victimisation across nine protected characteristics. This applies to recruitment and the workforce on site. In Northern Ireland, separate equality legislation is enforced by the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland.

I. Handle personal data lawfully

If you process personal data — staff records, supplier contacts, site visitors — you must comply with the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 and pay the ICO data protection fee unless you are specifically exempt.

  1. 1

    1. Risk-assess the quarry and put safe systems of work in place

    Your general HASWA duty and the Quarries Regulations 1999 quarry-safety document.

  2. 2

    2. Appoint a quarry manager and notify HSE

    The Quarries Regulations require a competent quarry manager and notification before starting a quarry.

  3. 3

    3. Control RCS and dust under COSHH

    Assess exposure, apply controls and carry out health surveillance where needed.

  4. 4

    4. Maintain plant under PUWER and manage manual handling

    Keep work equipment safe and reduce manual-handling risk.

  5. 5

    5. Hold EL insurance, meet equality and data protection duties

    EL insurance once you employ anyone; no discrimination under the Equality Act 2010; ICO registration.

What to do next

With the site-safety spine in place, get the pre-operational permits and consents from the permits guide, then confirm the whole picture with the compliance checklist. Start from the router if you are not sure which guides apply to you.

Official sources

Authoritative quarry-safety and employment guidance.