Journey
Set up a quarrying and mining business
Learning path for quarrying and mining businesses — stone, sand, gravel, clay, salt, peat and chemical minerals. Work out which regulations apply, put a safe quarry in place, get the permits and consents you need, and verify everything with a compliance checklist.
What this journey is for
Quarrying and mining is heavily regulated. Before any extraction begins you need planning permission, environmental permits and — depending on your operation — explosives licensing, COMAH controls, or habitats consents. On top of that sit the Quarries Regulations 1999 quarry-safety regime, the workplace health and safety duties 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.
-
Work out which regulations apply to you
Start by getting the picture right. Every quarry shares the same safety foundation and the Quarries Regulations 1999, but which permits and consents you need depends on what you extract, whether you blast, and how you process the mineral. Use the router guide to map out your obligations before you commit.
Which quarrying and mining regulations apply to your business
Work out which rules apply to your operation. A reference guide that routes you from the shared quarry-safety foundation to the permits and consents for planning, environment, explosives, COMAH and habitats.
-
Put your safe-quarry foundations in place
Whatever you extract, this is the universal spine. Risk-assess the working, appoint a quarry manager and prepare your health and safety document under the Quarries Regulations 1999, control exposure to respirable crystalline silica and 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 quarry or mine
The duties every quarry shares — general health and safety, the Quarries Regulations 1999 quarry-safety regime, COSHH controls for silica and dust, work equipment (PUWER), manual handling, fire safety, employers' liability insurance, equality and data protection.
-
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 and — depending on your activity — environmental permits for discharges and mineral processing, an explosives licence for blasting, COMAH controls for chemical minerals, habitats scrutiny for peat, and the Mines Regulations for underground salt. These consents are separate from the quarry-safety duties in the spine.
Get the permits and consents for quarrying and mining
The pre-operational gateways — minerals planning permission, environmental permits, explosives licensing, COMAH, habitats scrutiny for peat, and the Mines Regulations for underground salt.
-
Verify you have covered everything
Once the permits are in hand and the quarry-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, quarry 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.
Quarrying and mining: compliance checklist
Verify you have covered everything — the quarry-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 quarrying 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 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 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-quarry 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 quarry 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.