14.2 Communication With Superiors, Peers & Subordinates

Mining work crosses shifts, elevations, contractors, disciplines, control rooms, and changing conditions. A message that is sent but not understood is not effective communication. Closed-loop communication requires the receiver to repeat or paraphrase the instruction and the sender to verify the response. It is especially important for blasting clearance, equipment movement, electrical isolation, ventilation change, emergency response, and survey set-out.

Match the Channel to Risk

A long email is unsuitable for an imminent fall-of-ground hazard. A radio call alone is unsuitable for changing a mine design. Use redundancy where consequence is high.

Structured Shift Handover

A handover should cover:

1. people underground or in active areas;
2. incidents, hazards, and changed ground conditions;
3. ventilation readings, gas alarms, fans, doors, and stoppings;
4. dewatering levels, pumps, rainfall, and water ingress;
5. equipment availability, defects, isolation, and permits;
6. blast status, misfires, exclusion zones, and re-entry;
7. production, development, grade, stockpile, and blend;
8. environmental controls, ponds, discharges, spills, and weather; and
9. incomplete work, responsible person, trigger, and deadline.

Conduct the handover at a time and place that permits questions. The outgoing supervisor should not leave before the incoming supervisor accepts critical status. Field verification is required when conditions cannot be represented reliably in a log.

Communicating Upward

Superiors need concise information for decisions: condition, evidence, consequence, controls in place, options, recommendation, and time required. Do not dilute a critical warning in routine data. If a production plan cannot be executed safely, state the constraint and the decision required. Preserve the escalation trail where the issue remains unresolved.

A useful format is SBAR:

• Situation: what is happening now?
• Background: what context matters?
• Assessment: what does the evidence indicate?
• Recommendation: what action and authority are needed?

Peer Interfaces

Cross-functional work needs shared definitions. “Ore,” “available,” “complete,” and “safe” can mean different things. Define measurement point, unit, time window, and acceptance criterion. When geology reports a grade, specify dry basis, support, assay cut-off, and model version. When maintenance reports availability, specify calendar, physical, or mechanical availability and excluded time.

Communicating With Subordinates

A pre-start brief should identify the task, roles, hazards, controls, changed conditions, simultaneous operations, emergency response, and stop-work expectation. Ask workers to explain the critical controls in their own words. Translation, diagrams, demonstrations, or a field walk may be needed; literacy or language assumptions create risk.

Leadership response determines future reporting. Punishing a person who reports a near miss encourages silence. Accountability remains necessary for reckless conduct, but distinguish error, at-risk behavior, system weakness, and intentional violation. Investigate what made the action reasonable at the time.

Document and Alarm Control

Use one authoritative source, revision identifier, approval, effective time, and distribution list. Remove superseded plans from field use. Dashboards should show data timestamp and sensor health. Alarm floods teach operators to ignore alarms; prioritize by consequence, rationalize setpoints, prevent nuisance activation, and require acknowledgment and response.

Closed-Loop Example

Controller: “Truck 27, hold at Bay 3; blast clearance is not complete.” Driver: “Holding Truck 27 at Bay 3 because blast clearance is incomplete.” Controller: “Correct; remain until I issue release.” This short exchange prevents a plausible but dangerous assumption.

The best exam answer identifies audience, urgency, channel, confirmation, record, and escalation.

Contractor Communication

Contract terms do not guarantee that contractor crews understand site controls. Include contractors in pre-starts, handovers, emergency drills, permit systems, and change notices; define which radio channel, language, supervisor, and document source govern. Verify competence and understanding in the field. When owner and contractor procedures conflict, stop and resolve the interface before work rather than expecting the worker to choose between two authorities.

Noise control: standardize routine reporting and reserve interruptive channels for urgent risk. If every message is marked critical, receivers cannot distinguish the one condition that requires immediate stop-work action.

Communication Is Also Configuration Control

A correct instruction can become unsafe when it refers to the wrong location, coordinate system, equipment, shift, or drawing revision. Include identity, place, time, condition, required action, limit, reason and acknowledgment for critical messages. After a change, withdraw superseded plans at field points and confirm that dispatch, permits, isolation records, survey set-out and contractor copies use the same approved revision.