Journey
Set up a metal ore mining business
Learning path for metal ore mining businesses — iron, copper, tin, lead, zinc, tungsten, uranium and thorium. Work out which regulations apply, put a safe mine in place, get the permits and consents you need, and verify everything with a compliance checklist.
What this journey is for
Metal ore mining is among the most heavily regulated sectors. Before any extraction begins you need planning permission, environmental permits and — depending on your operation — explosives licensing and a radioactive-substances permit. On top of that sit the workplace health and safety duties, the Mines Regulations 2014 mine-safety regime and the employment obligations every business carries. This journey walks you through that path in the order you will live it, from working out which rules apply through to checking you have everything in place.
It does not give you the step-by-step instructions or the figures — those live in the guides it points to. This is the map: it tells you where you are, why each stage matters, and which guide to open next.
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Work out which regulations apply to you
Start by getting the picture right. Every metal ore mining operation shares the same workplace-safety foundation and the Mines Regulations 2014, but which permits and consents you need depends on whether you blast, the nature of your discharges and whether you handle naturally-occurring radioactive material. Use the router guide to map out your obligations before you commit.
Which metal ore mining regulations apply to your business
Work out which rules apply to your operation. A reference guide that routes you from the shared mine-safety foundation to the permits and consents for planning, environment, explosives and radioactive substances.
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Put your safe-mine foundations in place
Whatever you mine, this is the universal spine. Risk-assess the working — ground movement, ventilation, dust, plant, access and egress — appoint a mine manager and prepare your mine health and safety document under the Mines Regulations 2014, control exposure to silica and ore dust under COSHH, keep plant safe under PUWER, manage manual handling and fire safety, hold employers' liability insurance and meet your equality and data protection duties. Build this in from the start.
Set up and run a safe metal ore mine
The duties every mine shares — general health and safety, the Mines Regulations 2014 mine-safety regime, COSHH controls for silica and ore dust, work equipment (PUWER), manual handling, fire safety, employers' liability insurance, equality and data protection.
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Get the permits and consents for your operation
Before you start extracting, you need the pre-operational gateways: minerals planning permission from the mineral planning authority, environmental permits for mine-water discharge and extractive waste, and — where you blast — an explosives licence. Uranium and thorium ore mining additionally needs a radioactive-substances environmental permit. These consents are separate from the mine-safety duties in the spine.
Get the permits and consents for metal ore mining
The pre-operational gateways — minerals planning permission, environmental permits for mine-water discharge and extractive waste, explosives licensing for blasting, and the radioactive-substances permit for uranium and thorium ore.
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Verify you have covered everything
Once the permits are in hand and the mine-safety spine is operating, take a step back and check the whole picture holds together. A compliance checklist lets you confirm, in one place, that each obligation — workplace, mine safety, employment and the permits and consents for your operation — is genuinely met rather than assumed. Use it as your readiness review before extraction begins, and come back to it when operations change.
Metal ore mining: compliance checklist
Verify you have covered everything — the mine-safety and employment duties, and the permits and consents for your operation.
You will also need the general business set-up duties
Alongside the sector-specific path above, every business carries general obligations that are not unique to mining but are just as compulsory. As you build the business you will also need to:
- protect the people who work for you — meet your workplace health and safety duties, including the COSHH assessments that bite around silica and ore dust.
- hold employers' liability insurance once you take anyone on.
- handle personal data lawfully — most businesses must complete data protection registration with the ICO.
- meet your fire safety duties for the surface premises you work from.
These general duties run in parallel with the sector path rather than after it, so set them up as you establish the business. The safe-mine spine and the compliance checklist bring the core duties together so you can confirm they are covered.
Where this leaves you
You now have the shape of the whole task: work out which rules apply, put a safe mine in place, get the permits and consents for your operation, and verify the lot. Work the guides in order and you will have a clear, defensible position before extraction begins.