A mine emergency plan WA operators can defend starts with the law: every WA mine must have one under the Work Health and Safety (Mines) Regulations 2022. Regulation 43 sets the general duty, regulations 664 to 670B add the mining-specific rules, and Schedule 22 lists what the plan must contain. The plan must be tested at intervals of no more than 12 months, and it forms part of the mine safety management system.
This guide covers the regulations, what Schedule 22 asks you to write down, consultation, testing, review and training, the extra rules for underground mines, and where the code of practice stands. It applies to surface and underground mines, including quarries regulated as mines.
Status note, as at October 2026: the 2018 code, Emergency management for Western Australian mines, remains in effect as a transitional code and is marked by WorkSafe as under review. A replacement draft closed for public comment on 6 March 2026 and has not yet been approved.
Why the emergency plan gets tested by the regulator, not just by drills
In July 2025, WorkSafe temporarily shut down an open-pit iron ore mine after a routine inspection found inadequate emergency response capability. According to WorkSafe’s public announcement, the site was more than 100 kilometres from the nearest responding agency, which was volunteer-staffed, and had no mobile plant and vehicle rescue equipment and only minimal apparatus for any emergency.
Inspectors issued a notice prohibiting the operation of the mine’s heavy vehicles and limiting the movement of its light vehicles. Operations stopped for two days until the equipment was sourced and the operator committed to modifying its emergency management plan and training enough people to use the apparatus.
The lesson is not that the site lacked a document. It is that the plan has to match the site’s actual risks and location, and the equipment and people it relies on have to exist.
What the regulations require of every WA mine
The obligations sit in the Work Health and Safety (Mines) Regulations 2022, made under the Work Health and Safety Act 2020. The duties fall on the mine operator, and they come in two layers.
Regulation 43: the general duty
The mine operator must ensure an emergency plan is prepared that provides for emergency procedures (an effective response, evacuation, notifying emergency service organisations at the earliest opportunity, medical assistance and intervention, and effective communication between the person coordinating the response and everyone at the mine), testing of those procedures including how often, and information, training and instruction for relevant workers. The plan must be maintained so it stays effective, and implemented when an emergency happens.
In deciding what the plan needs, the operator must have regard to the nature of the work, the nature of the hazards, the size and location of the mine, and the number and composition of the people there.
Regulation 664: the mining layer
Part 10.2 Division 5 adds to regulation 43. Under regulation 664, the plan must address all aspects of emergency response, including ensuring:
- a system that enables all persons at the mine to be promptly located;
- adequate rescue equipment;
- enough people trained in that rescue equipment to respond effectively whenever someone is working at the mine; and
- adequate patient transport whenever someone is working at the mine.
The plan must also include every matter in Schedule 22 and, so far as reasonably practicable, be written so the people who use it can readily understand it. The level of detail must suit the scale, nature, complexity and location of the operation and its risks. Regulation 664(4) states that the emergency plan is part of the mine safety management system, so it belongs inside the same system described in our guide to the mine safety management system for quarries and mines.
What Schedule 22 asks you to write down
Schedule 22 is the most practical part of the law, because it is effectively the table of contents for the plan. It has six headings. Under regulation 664(2), its items apply to the extent they are relevant to the mine, having regard to the nature, complexity and location of the operation and its risks.
| Schedule 22 heading | What it covers, in plain English |
|---|---|
| 1. Site and hazard detail | Street address and nearest intersection, with enough detail for a stranger to find the site; the current mine survey plan; a description of the mine; the maximum number of people likely on site on a normal day; planning assumptions for different emergencies and areas likely to be affected; protective resources; response procedures, including isolating areas of the mine; infrastructure likely to be affected. |
| 2. Command structure and site personnel | Who does what, how, when and where; who can clarify the plan; who liaises with emergency services and how to reach them; a list of 24-hour emergency contacts; arrangements for assisting emergency services. |
| 3. Notifications | How people whose safety may be affected are warned of a notifiable or reportable incident, or an event that could lead to one, including people underground and when there is no electrical power; how emergency services are called; contact details for emergency and support services; on-site and off-site warning systems; on-site communication systems. |
| 4. Resources and equipment | On-site resources such as first aid, emergency equipment and spill materials; off-site resources including mines rescue; mines rescue arrangements, including minimum training, mutual aid with nearby mines and rescue procedures; for underground mines, communications that work without an electrical connection, and the type, number and location of refuges. |
| 5. Procedures | Safe evacuation of, and accounting for, all persons; control points for gas, water and electricity; what happens if ventilation fails totally or for more than 30 minutes; maintaining refuges and emergency equipment. |
| 6. Training and competence | Training, health assessment and competency of emergency response personnel, including volunteers; training and emergency drills for all workers. |
Two items are easy to underestimate. Item 1.7 asks for procedures for isolating areas of the mine, which means knowing in advance which areas can be closed and how. Item 3.1 ties notifications to notifiable and reportable incidents, so the plan should line up with your process for notifiable and reportable incidents at WA mines.
Consultation, copies and resources: regulations 665 to 668
Who you must consult
Regulation 665 requires the operator to consult any emergency service organisation that may need to respond, and the mine emergency workers of any mine who may be required to help implement the plan. Where a principal mining hazard could cause an incident that affects people in the area around the mine, the local government (and any regional local government) must also be consulted. That links the emergency plan to your principal mining hazard management plans.
The plan must address any recommendation from a consulted emergency service organisation about how and how often the plan is tested, whether the organisation will take part, and which incidents should be notified to it. Other advice from people consulted must be considered.
Copies and resources
Regulation 667 requires a copy of the plan to be kept at the mine and made available on request to staff of the department that administers the Fire and Emergency Services Act 1998. Regulation 668 requires every resource the plan names, including response and rescue equipment, to actually be provided, and all equipment it names to be maintained in good working order. That is the regulation a plan fails when it lists equipment that is not on site, or that has not been checked since it arrived.
Testing, review and training: regulations 669 to 670B
Testing at least every 12 months
Regulation 669 requires the plan to be tested at intervals of no more than 12 months, having regard to the recommendations of the organisations consulted, and as soon as reasonably practicable after any significant revision. The note to the regulation points out that more frequent testing may be required under regulation 43. Twelve months is a ceiling, not a target: a site with high turnover or a long emergency response time may need to test more often to keep the plan effective.
Review when controls change
Under regulation 670, if a control measure is revised under regulation 38 or regulation 618 (the review of control measures provisions), the emergency plan must be reviewed, and revised where necessary, for every aspect of risk control the revised measure touches. A new pit stage, a changed haul route or a new ground control trigger should all prompt a look at the emergency plan. Ground control is a common example, covered in our ground control management plan guide.
Training and mine emergency workers
Regulation 670A requires every worker to be trained in their responsibilities under the plan before they start work at the mine, and again as soon as reasonably practicable after any significant revision. Regulation 670B allows the site senior executive to appoint a competent person as a mine emergency worker, either for a particular emergency or for all emergencies at the mine.
Extra rules for underground mines
Subdivision 2 of the same Division adds underground-only requirements: at least two trafficable exits to the surface, with narrow exceptions such as a single entry drive under development (r 671), communication, safe escape and refuge (r 672), signage for refuges (r 673), self-rescuers (r 674), first aid and rescue equipment (r 674A), personal protective equipment for emergencies (r 675) and competent persons at the surface (r 675AA). Schedule 22 items 4.4 and 4.5 also require underground communications that work without an electrical connection, and details of refuges. Surface mines and quarries can skip these, but they cannot skip anything in regulations 43 and 664 to 670B.
Where the emergency management code of practice stands
The Emergency management for Western Australian mines: Code of practice was published in 2018 under the old Mines Safety and Inspection Act 1994. Section 420 of the WHS Act keeps codes that were in effect under that Act in force as if approved under section 274, and WorkSafe lists it among its transitional codes of practice. It covers surface and underground mines and quarries.
Under section 275 of the Act, an approved code is admissible in a prosecution as evidence of whether a duty was complied with, and a court may rely on it in deciding what is reasonably practicable. You can still comply another way if it gives an equivalent or higher standard of health and safety.
Two cautions apply. First, WorkSafe’s page states the code is under review and may not reflect current legislation. It still cites the repealed Mines Safety and Inspection Regulations 1995 by number, so translate those references to the current regulations above rather than quoting them. Second, a draft replacement code, developed by the WHS Commission and the Mining and Petroleum Advisory Committee, closed for submissions on 6 March 2026. Until the Minister approves it and it is gazetted, it is a draft, not a code. Reading it is useful for seeing where expectations are heading, but do not cite it as law.
WorkSafe’s emergency plan for mining operations page is a useful plain-English summary. It also covers withdrawal conditions: triggers, actions, communication, route and assembly point, checking the withdrawal happened, and re-entry, for events such as a cyclone, bushfire or adverse ground conditions.
Where emergency plans fail in practice
- The plan is generic. A template written for a metro site does not account for a 100 kilometre response time, a single access road or a volunteer brigade.
- The equipment exists on paper. The plan lists rescue gear that was never bought, has been moved, or has not been inspected, which is a regulation 668 problem.
- Nobody can say who is on site. Regulation 664 asks for a system that locates everyone promptly. A tag board that contractors and visitors bypass will not do that job.
- The map is out of date. Muster points, closed areas and emergency equipment are shown on a plan that predates the current pit shape and haul roads.
- Drills test the easy scenario. The annual evacuation drill runs on day shift in good weather. Night shift, a vehicle fire or a person trapped in plant is never exercised.
- Lessons do not reach the plan. The drill debrief lists actions, but nobody owns them and the plan is not revised.
For the practical side of running drills and response teams at smaller operations, see our companion guides on the quarry emergency response plan and emergency preparedness at small mines. For the wider WA framework, start with our guide to quarry safety in Western Australia.
Keeping the plan tied to the real site
Most of those failures share one cause: the plan describes the site as it was when written, while the site keeps changing. HazView keeps one interactive map of the site that every role uses. Hazards and map features, such as muster points, exclusion zones and areas set to open, restricted or closed, sit on the same map as the current survey and drone layers, so the picture an emergency coordinator opens is the one the crews are working in. Inspections of emergency equipment can be built from the site’s own forms, pinned to the equipment’s location and completed offline, with a PDF record generated on submit. Drill debrief actions can be recorded as controls on the relevant hazard, each with an accountable owner, due date and status, so the gaps a test finds are tracked until they are closed. HazView is not a personnel tracking system: it supports the plan, it does not replace the system regulation 664 requires for locating people.
To see how this fits the work of a site senior executive or mine manager, read HazView for mine managers, or book a demo using your own site map and emergency equipment checklists.
Frequently asked questions
Is an emergency plan mandatory for every WA mine?
Yes. Regulation 43 of the Work Health and Safety (Mines) Regulations 2022 requires the mine operator to prepare, maintain and implement one, and regulation 664 adds mining-specific content. The level of detail scales with the size, complexity, location and risks of the operation, but no mine is exempt.
How often must a mine emergency plan in WA be tested?
At intervals of no more than 12 months under regulation 669, and as soon as reasonably practicable after any significant revision. More frequent testing may be needed to keep the plan effective, and the testing should reflect recommendations from the emergency service organisations you consulted.
Is the 2018 emergency management code still current?
Yes, as at October 2026. It continues as a transitional code under section 420 of the WHS Act and is marked by WorkSafe as under review. A replacement draft closed for comment on 6 March 2026 and is not in force until it is approved and gazetted.
Does the emergency plan sit inside the mine safety management system?
Yes. Regulation 664(4) states that the emergency plan is part of the mine safety management system, and regulation 670 requires it to be reviewed whenever a related control measure is revised.
Who has to be trained in the emergency plan?
Every worker at the mine, before they start work and again after any significant revision, under regulation 670A. Schedule 22 also requires the plan to cover training and emergency drills for all workers, and the training and competency of emergency response personnel, including volunteers.