A first-week checklist for new joiners in mining and quarrying businesses

A new tipper driver at a granite quarry started his second morning on the haul road to the crusher. The weighbridge clerk had pointed him there. The road was shut for blasting. The shotfirer's whistle stopped him a hundred metres short. The driver never came back. The owner said he was careless. The truth was simpler: nobody had walked him around the berms, the highwall and the blast shelter.

Pits, crushers and stockpile yards are places where a mistake in week one can be a death, not a delay. The checklist below is built for those places. After it comes a short guide on who ticks which line.

Name: ________   Post: operator / driver / helper / clerk / fitter / mate
Employed by: own muster / contractor (name) ________   Gang or crew: ________
Joined on: ________   Muster number: ________
AT THE GATE, DAY 1 (site mate)
[ ] Entry register signed; gate pass or tag issued
[ ] Hardhat, boots, dust mask or respirator, ear plugs and hi-vis vest handed over and logged against his name
[ ] Phone numbers of site mate, plant in-charge and first aider saved
WALK OF THE SITE, DAY 1 (plant in-charge)
[ ] Shown the pit edge, berms, highwall and no-go ramps
[ ] Shown the blast shelter, siren post and assembly point; the siren sounded so he knows it
[ ] Shown the haul road, one-way lanes, tipper bays, weighbridge and stockpile yard
[ ] Shown the diesel bowser, magazine fence (from outside only), canteen and first aid room
MACHINE OR POST, DAYS 2 TO 3 (supervisor or senior operator)
[ ] Toolbox talk attended and signed
[ ] Watched a full cycle: drilling, loading, hauling, crushing or screening, as relevant
[ ] Told which machines he must not start alone
[ ] Supervised hours logged on the sheet
PAPERS AND PAY, DAYS 3 TO 4 (office)
[ ] Joining form, ID copy and bank details filed
[ ] Rate per day, per trip or per tonne explained; rain-day and shortfall rule explained
[ ] Settlement day told; challan or tally slip shown
CLOSE OF WEEK, DAYS 5 TO 6 (owner or plant in-charge)
[ ] Short chat: anything confusing, anything that looked unsafe
[ ] Cleared for solo work, or kept under watch with a reason written

Mine and quarry sites hold dangers that cannot be shown on a slide. The edge of a bench looks like any other ground. Dust hides a rope. An excavator swings a blind side. The joiner needs to stand where the danger is, with someone who knows it. The sheet therefore forces a walk, not a lecture.

• Site mate or gate keeper: entry, tag and kit lines, in the first hour.
• Plant in-charge: the walk of the site. He decides the order; the sheet only records it.
• Senior operator or driver: the machine lines. A good one explains the cycle while he works.
• Office clerk: papers, rate and settlement day.
• Owner or manager: reads the sheet on the last working day, signs it and files it with the joining papers.
• Contractor's munshi or mukadam: signs for each worker he brings and supplies the contractor's own muster number.

File one sheet for each worker. Keep a separate stack for each contractor. Leave the box empty if a line was skipped. Say why. A false tick is worse than a blank.

1. 1

   Walk first, paper later

   Do the site walk on the first morning, before any task is given. A man who has seen the highwall in daylight respects it.

2. 2

   Sound the siren

   Let the joiner hear it once. In a real blast, his body should already know the sound.

3. 3

   Tell him the no-go machines

   A new helper does not start the crusher, open the feeder gate or climb on a screen deck alone. Say it, and write it.

4. 4

   Explain pay in his language

   Rate, rain day, short day and settlement day. A muddle over wages sends more people quietly away than any rock fall.

5. 5

   Hold the Saturday talk

   Ask what he saw that scared him. Fix one item and report back to him.

• Stone and granite quarries: add drilling pattern, bench height limits and the rule for approaching a face after a blast.
• Sand and aggregate yards: add river bed or pit ramp rules, dumper reversing, and the dust suppression tanker round.
• Mineral processing plants: add conveyor guards, grizzly and screen deck access, and the lock-out routine before cleaning.
• Mining contractors: add each client site's own induction as a second page, signed by the client's safety person.

For deeper site-specific lines, read the guidance for stone quarries and granite quarries. The sector's wider pressure points are on the mining and quarrying page. Our employee onboarding process service covers the paperwork.