Description

Serious injuries and fatalities (SIFs) continue to challenge mining operations worldwide, despite major advances in engineering controls, safety systems, and risk management practices. While many organizations investigate and learn from their own incidents, industry-wide learning remains limited when data is fragmented, inconsistently reported, or unavailable across jurisdictions. This issue is particularly acute in Canada, where ten provinces and three territories maintain separate OHS legislation and reporting frameworks, preventing the development of a unified national view of SIF trends, causal factors, and critical control performance. 

To address this barrier, the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum’s Health and Safety Society (CIM HSS) has launched the Serious Injury and Fatality (SIF) Prevention Initiative, a collaborative effort to develop a national SIF learning system that supports proactive hazard management and enhances the mining sector’s collective capacity to prevent repeat events. The initiative includes mine operators, researchers, industry associations, regulators, lawyers and technology partners working together to design the governance framework, standardized reporting tools, and data-sharing model needed to create a sustainable and trusted national repository. 

A foundational component of this work is a national research study conducted in 2025-2026 to understand the needs, barriers, and expectations of mining health and safety professionals regarding SIF data sharing and learning. Through a comprehensive survey of frontline supervisors, safety advisors, technical specialists, managers, and senior leaders across underground, surface, and processing operations, the study examined: (i) Current access to and use of SIF data, (ii) Gaps in reporting consistency and cross-site learning, (iii) Challenges related to confidentiality, legal requirements, and operational readiness, (iv) Desired database features and critical control verification requirements, (v) Lessons from other jurisdictions (MSHA, ICMM, Queensland), and (vi) Engagement, governance, and adoption considerations. 

This session will share the key findings from the study and translate them into actionable insights for mine operators, including what conditions must be in place to support meaningful data sharing, how SIF information can be standardized without compromising confidentiality, and what operators identify as the most valuable outputs of a national SIF system. 

The presentation will be delivered by three members of the CIM HSS SIF Initiative working group. Gordon Winkel will outline the broader safety context and the technical importance of high-quality learning systems. Next, Lori-Anne Fleming will discuss the groups partnership model and how operators, regulators, and associations can collaborate effectively. Finally, Emily Tetzlaff will present the empirical survey findings and operator-informed design requirements for the future SIF learning platform. 

Attendees will gain practical, implementation-focused insights that can guide internal SIF prevention programs, strengthen learning from high-risk events, and contribute to shaping a national system designed by industry, for industry.