Concentrate Transportation From Mine to Market is Critical to Mines’ Profitability.

2021

Cesar Oboni

Transportation related mining accidents can be tricky and very costly due to their multiple aspects. In addition, they may occur outside of the operation perimeter and miners’ direct responsibility. Based on experience, accidents may involve: Ship loader collapse Wharves damages due to seismic event Concentrate haul truck overturning Acid tanker off road Personnel bus accident Railroad derailment and finally airplane accident transporting personnel Mining companies oftentimes assume transport infrastructure ensuring ingress/egress is reliable and do not consider the full spectrum of lurking hazards and generated risks. They use insurance to transfer transportation risk and rely on Force Majeure clauses. This practice may prove hazardous in these times of rapidly evolving climate change, geopolitical situations, epidemics. This paper focuses on the characterization of “new normal” and extreme events showing how quantitative risk assessments allow for a better understanding of the risk landscape and to formulate rational mitigative roadmap, including buffer stocks, optimised Force Majeure and insurance contracts. The importance of the explicit integration of interdependencies and uncertainties is demonstrated using a real-life example which also shows the need to break informational silos hindering balanced approaches. For example, looking at hazard categories such as cyber hazards, natural, and man-made (including sabotage, terrorism) hazards of various types is misleading and leads to squandering mitigative funds. Convergent approaches are needed for a sustainable, rational and profitable future.

Keywords: interdependencies, quantitative risk assessments, ingress/egress, Force Majeure, transportation risk, climate change

cim.paperattributes.header.paperkeywordsfrench: interdependencies, quantitative risk assessments, ingress/egress, Force Majeure, transportation risk, climate change