Mining solutions provider JKTech will host a number of Global Minerals Industry Risk Management (G-MIRM) training programmes in Western Australia (WA), this year.

The WA Department of Mines and Petroleum (DMP) contracted JKTech to deliver G-MIRM Level 3 (Managers course) and G-MIRM Level 4 (Executives course) to mines inspectors and subsequently also offered industry participation on these courses.

The upcoming programmes to be offered in WA include three G-MIRM Managers courses to be held from August 12 to 16 in Kalgoorlie, from October 21 to 25 in Bunbury and from November 25 to 29, in Perth. One G-MIRM for Executives course will also be held in Perth, from October 2 to 3.

The G-MIRM suite of courses was developed jointly by Professor Jim Joy during his tenure as the director of the Minerals Industry Safety and Health Centre at the Sustainable Minerals Institute at the University of Queensland, in collaboration with diversified miner Anglo American, as part of its global risk management initiative.

The G-MIRM programmes are custom-designed for the executive, management, supervisory and team member levels of an organisation. The aim of each programme is to enable the target audience to make better decisions with regard to risks and, particularly, safety risks.

To achieve this, JKTech’s G-MIRM education and training package is delivered across four layers to enhance the understanding and capability of all personnel in hazard and risk management, explains JKTech risk and sustainability manager for Africa Carl Marx.

The programme starts with the two-day workshop for Executives to provide strategic understanding and support for the programme. This focuses on equipping executives and strategic leaders with the means to initiate change in their companies and make better decisions about risk.

Next is the four-and-a-half-day Managers course to challenge risk tolerance and understanding and to teach site safety, health and environment (SHE) risk improvement plans.

Finally, training programmes are targeted at task planning skills for supervisors in a two-and-a-half-day course and a one-day course aimed at all people in an organisation and targeted at improving personal risk understanding and planning for daily work tasks.

The Executives workshop builds on the G-MIRM programme and can be seen as a benchmark for quality risk management education, says Marx.

The G-MIRM Managers course aims to initiate a radical change in SHE risk management in operations and disciplines through improving a manager’s understanding and practice of risk management.

The course is aimed at mine-, plant- and project-level general managers, mine managers, section managers and superintendents.

“Senior technical staff, SHE managers and practitioners, within a division or corporate structure, and long-term hazard contractor managers are also encouraged to attend the course,” says Marx.

In Australia, specifically, the successful completion of the G-MIRM Managers workshop is accepted by the Queensland Government Department of Natural Resources and Mines Inspectorate, as the demonstra- tion of a mine manager’s required competence as defined in the Australian Quality Training Framework’s RIIRIS601A standard, which highlights how to establish and maintain the risk management system.

The course outline contains 15 modules presented over five days. The topics covered include safety risk management; human factors behaviour and engineering; risk assessment and analysis; safety maturity techniques; leading practice; and integrated risk management.

In addition to completing the modules, there are prestudy requirements of about 20 hours and three assignments to be submitted.

“Companies benefit from G-MIRM by mapping this programme against the terminology, processes, procedures and concepts that already exist in a company, providing an opportunity to strengthen a company’s current risk management approach rather than introducing something that is perceived to be yet another new initiative”, concludes Marx.