ISO TC 82 – Mining , and the Importance of International Standards

2019

William Kempson, Hatch

Mining Companies have producing assets in increasingly diverse portions of the world. It is not uncommon that the owner, the design team, the mine contractors and the operators are all based in different countries. While these assets are always subject to the regulatory requirement of those countries there have not been international standards available to review and evaluate these assets. This becomes particularly important when considering safety critical items such as tailings dams, vertical shaft systems and autonomous vehicles to highlight a few. The work currently being completed in ISO ensures these standards will be available and will be generated by and subscribed to on an international basis, thus removing the any potential for patriotic partisanship and ensuring safe and predictable systems are installed. This paper will discuss the benefits of the international standards, the structure of the teams and working groups who are generating these standards as well as their process by which the standards are generated. This will allow insight into the creation of the standard and will aim to demonstrate the “neutral” and technically strong manner in which this is achieved. In addition, the paper will discuss the standards which have been produced in the last five years as well as the current standards which are in place. The finale will discuss upcoming work and the timelines in which it is anticipated these will be completed.

Keywords: ISO TC 82 Shafts Headframe Stage Conveyance Mining International Standards Global