Planning before mobilisation
Scope-specific hazard review, access and landowner conditions, competency checks, journey planning, communications, emergency response, weather and environmental constraints.
Health & safety
Safe delivery starts with how the programme is designed
Wairiri applies the health-and-safety framework appropriate to the actual work, then integrates competency, contractor coordination, field controls and emergency planning from scope through delivery.
Leadership & competency
Extractives experience backed by certificates of competence
Wairiri principal Hamish McLauchlan holds certificates of competence as a Site Senior Executive, B-grade quarry manager and B-grade opencast coal mine manager. This brings practical extractives oversight to exploration, drilling, earthworks and mine-development assignments.
The manager and other statutory appointments required for a particular mining or quarrying operation depend on its type, scale and hazards. Wairiri confirms those requirements for the specific operation and brings in appropriately qualified people where additional appointments or competencies are needed.
Programme controls
Scaled to the actual work and its principal risks
A reconnaissance visit, remote sampling campaign, drilling programme and operating mine do not need identical systems. Each needs clear responsibilities and controls proportionate to its people, plant, terrain, interfaces and potential consequences.
Field systems
Inductions, pre-starts, task planning, dynamic reassessment, lone and remote work controls, check-in arrangements, fatigue management, incident reporting and stop-work authority.
Contractor interfaces
Clear roles between client, principal, landowner, drilling or earthworks contractor and field team, including plant interactions, exclusion zones, change management and daily coordination.
Exploration & drilling
Controls for rig access, rotating equipment, rods and samples, high-pressure systems, mobile plant, excavations, lifting, field vehicles, difficult terrain and changing ground conditions.
Extractive operations
Support for health and safety management systems, hazard-management processes and, where required, principal hazard management plans and principal control plans.
Review & improvement
Field observations, inspections, incidents, near misses and programme changes are used to test whether controls remain effective and to improve the next stage of work.
New Zealand regulatory distinction
Mineral exploration and coal exploration are not treated the same
The framework depends on what is being explored, where the work occurs and whether it forms part of a mine or quarry. Wairiri checks that classification before roles and systems are assigned.
General mineral exploration
Away from an operating mine or quarry
Ordinary mineral exploration away from a mine or quarry is managed under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 and the generally applicable health-and-safety regulations. It does not require an extractives statutory appointment merely because the work is mineral exploration.
Coal exploration
Specifically treated as a mining operation
The Health and Safety at Work (Mining Operations and Quarrying Operations) Regulations 2016 place coal exploration within the mining-operation framework. Applicable statutory appointments, notifications, competencies and controls must therefore be established for the particular coal exploration operation.
This is a high-level distinction, not legal advice. Current legislation and WorkSafe requirements should be checked against the exact scope before mobilisation.
Regulatory foundation
New Zealand extractives guidance
Wairiri’s approach is informed by the Health and Safety at Work framework, the Mining Operations and Quarrying Operations Regulations, and current WorkSafe extractives guidance. The legal and competency requirements are checked against the particular operation rather than assumed from a generic template.
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Have a project, permit or geological problem to work through?
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