Why a mine safety management system matters for exploration

A mine safety management system (MSMS) brings an operation's safety policies, procedures, plans and records together so that the work is planned and run safely. In Western Australia, the Work Health and Safety (Mines) Regulations 2022 put the duty to have one on the mine operator, and the duty applies to exploration operations as well as to mines.

For an exploration business the hard part is rarely writing the system. It is running it day to day: small crews on remote sites, projects that start and stop, contractors who come and go, forms filled in on a phone with no signal, and records that have to be found again when an inspector, a client or an auditor asks.

How Xplore Shield helps

Xplore Shield is the app Terra Search uses, with the exploration businesses it works with, to run the field side of a safety management system and keep its evidence in one place.

Who and what is in the field. People, vehicles, equipment and comms devices join a project's compliance list from the crew's own forms: journey management plans, check-ins, prestart meetings and safety briefings. See Compliance.
Forms from the field, kept as registers. Hazard reports, incident reports, inspections, job safety analyses, prestarts and toolbox meetings are filled in on a phone or tablet and arrive in searchable registers, with the form's PDF. See Registers.
Reminders before things lapse. Missing forms, expiring licences and certificates, services due and extinguisher tags out of date show on the Dashboard and go out in daily and weekly reports.
Hazards and incidents followed through. Each report carries its risk levels, controls and status until it is closed or its investigation is finished. See Hazard report and Incident report.
A mine record you cannot quietly change. The Mine Record Book keeps inspection records, notices, correspondence, notified incidents, control-measure reviews and statutory appointments. Entries cannot be edited or deleted; a mistake is fixed by a correction that names the entry it corrects.
The people and kit behind the work. Staff records with licences, certificates and inductions, and equipment and comms records with services and inspections. See Databases.
Your safety documents to hand. The MSMS library holds the shared safety management system documents and your own organisation's files.
History that stays. A person, project or piece of equipment that records still point to cannot be deleted, so the evidence of what was done is not lost.

What Xplore Shield does not do

Xplore Shield is a tool for running and evidencing parts of a safety management system. It does not write your MSMS, it does not make an operation compliant, and it does not replace the operator's own duties, risk assessments and reviews. Check your obligations against the regulations and your regulator's guidance.

Questions

Does an exploration company need a mine safety management system?

In Western Australia, yes: the duty to establish and implement an MSMS applies to exploration operations as well as to mines. Other states have their own rules.

Is Xplore Shield an MSMS?

No. An MSMS is your organisation's system of policies, procedures and plans. Xplore Shield helps you carry out the field parts of it every day and keeps the records that show it was done.

Can it be used where there is no mobile signal?

The field forms are filled in on a device and sent when it next has a signal. Xplore Shield then records them. A form that arrives a day late is still kept, but it does not clear a miss recorded for the day before.

Who can use Xplore Shield?

Terra Search staff and the exploration businesses that Terra Search sets up as subscribers. During the beta it is open to invited testers. See the Quick start.

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