Open Pit Bench Management SWMS
Open-pit bench preparation and ongoing geotechnical management. Covers pre-entry geotechnical inspection of the highwall and catch berms, berm height and width geometry verification, catch-bench maintenance, wall-movement monitoring (prism targets / slope radar trigger action levels), bench-drilling pre-blast highwall inspection, and post-blast scaling program before equipment re-entry.
SWMS variants reference your state’s WHS legislation. Instant download after payment.
Open-pit bench management governs the geotechnical integrity of highwalls, catch berms and active mining benches across metalliferous and coal operations. This SWMS addresses the full cycle of pre-entry geotechnical inspection, berm geometry verification, catch-bench maintenance, wall-movement monitoring via prism arrays and slope-stability radar, pre-blast highwall inspection, and post-blast scaling before mobile plant and personnel re-entry. Under WHS Mines Regulation NSW 2022 Part 5, ground or strata failure is a declared principal mining hazard requiring a documented Principal Hazard Management Plan supported by task-level SWMS. Because wall failure can result in burial of haul trucks, drills, and personnel within seconds, a SWMS is mandatory for every crew entering a working bench, controlling highwall exposure, or interpreting Trigger Action Response Plan (TARP) data. This document operationalises the geotechnical PHMP at the workface and discharges the PCBU's consultation duty under WHS Act s47.
Hazards identified
7 hazards covered, sorted by priority.
Catastrophic burial of operators in haul trucks, drills or light vehicles; multiple fatalities and total equipment loss
Penetrating head/torso trauma to ground crew, windscreen breach of light vehicles, fatal or critical injuries
Loss of rockfall containment allowing material to roll to lower active benches striking personnel and equipment
Crews remain in failure zone after warning thresholds breached, leading to entrapment and fatal burial
Initiation of explosives during scaling or drilling, ejection of rock, fatal blast and projectile injuries
Sudden block release onto bench below causing crushing fatalities and undermining adjacent ramp stability
Reduced effective stress and accelerated wall deformation leading to flowslide or wedge failure on working benches
Control measures
Hierarchy-of-controls order: elimination → substitution → isolation → engineering → administrative → PPE.
- 1Elimination — Redesign mine plan to eliminate personnel exposure beneath unstable sectors by relocating cuts, abandoning compromised benches, or sterilising ore against geotechnical exclusion zones.
- 2Elimination — Prohibit all entry beneath highwall sectors flagged at TARP Red trigger until geotechnical engineer issues written re-entry authorisation following independent reassessment.
- 3Substitution — Substitute manual scaling with remote-controlled excavator scaling or hydraulic rock breakers operated from safe stand-off distances exceeding 1.5 times the bench height.
- 4Engineering — Install continuous slope-stability radar coverage on all active highwalls per MDG 1006 with automated SMS/radio alerts at Amber and Red velocity thresholds.
- 5Engineering — Construct catch berms to designed width and 2-metre minimum windrow height verified by drone photogrammetry survey before declaring bench fit for trafficking.
- 6Engineering — Deploy prism monitoring arrays at maximum 25-metre spacing with robotic total station readings at intervals matching the active failure mechanism timescale.
- 7Administrative — Conduct documented pre-shift geotechnical inspection of highwall, crest and catch berm by competent person, recording findings in bench inspection register before crew entry.
- 8Administrative — Implement Trigger Action Response Plan defining Green/Amber/Red velocity thresholds, evacuation routes, mustering points and authority to stop work for every active sector.
- 9Administrative — Enforce mandatory pre-blast highwall inspection, post-blast 30-minute settling period and scaling sign-off before re-entry per Resources Regulator guidance.
- 10PPE — Issue Type 1 hard hats, high-visibility clothing, safety glasses, steel-capped boots and two-way radios with TARP channel monitoring for all personnel entering active bench environments.
Applicable Codes of Practice
Ground or strata failure declared principal mining hazard requiring documented PHMP, risk assessment, control verification and consultation under regulation 26.
Prescribes monitoring frequency, prism and radar deployment, TARP structure and competent-person review intervals applied directly within this SWMS.
Sets inspection criteria for highwall integrity, catch-berm geometry, scaling standards and re-entry authority used as benchmark for control adequacy.
Specifies PPE performance requirements for personnel exposed to falling object and mobile plant interaction hazards on active mining benches.
Who this is for
- →Open-pit mine managers and statutory quarry managers
- →Geotechnical engineers and ground control supervisors
- →Drill and blast crews working active highwalls
- →Production supervisors managing bench re-entry decisions
What you receive
- ✓Editable DOCX template — Microsoft Word compatible
- ✓State-specific WHS legislation schedule (NSW/VIC/QLD/SA/WA/TAS/NT/ACT)
- ✓Hazard register with risk ratings + hierarchy-of-control mapping
- ✓Worker sign-on register, pre-start checklist, and incident escalation flow
Worked example
At a regional gold operation, the Day Shift Production Supervisor convenes the 6:00am pre-start in the crib room with the digger operator, two haul truck operators, the geotechnical technician and a scaling crew before opening Bench RL-340. The supervisor opens this SWMS on the toughbook and walks through Section 3 Hazards, pausing on highwall failure and post-blast brow instability because the sector was fired the previous afternoon. The geotechnical technician displays overnight slope radar data — inverse velocity is trending at Amber with localised deformation above the eastern wedge — and the crew agrees the TARP control from Section 4 applies: no personnel within 30 metres of the toe until robotic excavator scaling is complete. The scaling crew sign on, isolate the sector with bunting and lighting, and complete remote scaling over ninety minutes. The geotechnical technician re-reads prisms, confirms movement has decayed below Amber, and the supervisor authorises re-entry in writing on the bench inspection register. Mid-shift, a haul truck operator radios that fresh scats are visible on the catch berm. The supervisor halts production, returns to the SWMS, applies the dynamic re-inspection control, and the geotechnical engineer attends within twenty minutes to reassess. The SWMS therefore functions as the live decision document linking field observation to documented authority, not a compliance artefact filed away after sign-on.
Related legislation
- WHS Act 2011 (model)
- WHS Regulation 2025
- Managing the Risk of Falls at Workplaces CoP
Frequently asked questions
Does the high risk construction work regime apply to an open-pit bench?
No — surface mining is not construction work, so the activity list in WHS Regulation section 291 and the SWMS duty in section 299 are not the operative law here. Open-pit ground control sits under the mines and petroleum sites regulation, where ground or strata failure is a declared principal mining hazard requiring a documented Principal Hazard Management Plan. This document is the task-level instrument that operationalises that plan at the workface: it turns the geotechnical PHMP into pre-entry inspection, TARP interpretation and re-entry authority for the specific crew on the specific bench, and records the consultation the PCBU must carry out.
Does this cover slope monitoring and TARP thresholds?
Yes. Monitoring is treated as an engineering control, not reporting. It specifies continuous slope-stability radar coverage on all active highwalls per MDG 1006 with automated SMS and radio alerts at Amber and Red velocity thresholds, plus prism arrays at maximum 25-metre spacing read by robotic total station at intervals matched to the active failure mechanism timescale. The Trigger Action Response Plan defines Green, Amber and Red thresholds with evacuation routes, mustering points and authority to stop work for every sector. At Red, entry beneath the sector is prohibited until a geotechnical engineer issues written re-entry authorisation.
How does it handle scaling and post-blast re-entry?
Manual scaling is substituted wherever possible with remote-controlled excavator scaling or hydraulic rock breakers operated from a stand-off exceeding 1.5 times the bench height, which removes the operator from the fall-of-ground zone rather than protecting them inside it. For fired sectors the sequence is fixed: mandatory pre-blast highwall inspection, a post-blast settling period, then scaling sign-off before re-entry. Bootleg holes, misfires and unstable brow material are carried as a distinct hazard because scaling or drilling into them can initiate explosives, so the brow is assessed before anyone works beneath it.
Does it address catch berm geometry and rockfall containment?
Yes. Under-width or eroded catch berms are a high-priority hazard because a berm that has lost its containment capacity lets material roll through to lower active benches. The control requires berms built to designed width with a minimum 2-metre windrow height, verified by drone photogrammetry survey before the bench is declared fit for trafficking — a survey record, not a visual call. Tension cracks at the bench crest are treated separately as an indicator of incipient toppling failure, and saturated wall conditions from perched water tables or rainfall are flagged as accelerating deformation.
What do I receive and who is expected to sign it?
An editable DOCX template in Microsoft Word format, bought once, with the state-specific WHS legislation schedule for NSW, VIC, QLD, SA, WA, TAS, NT and ACT, the hazard register with hierarchy-of-control mapping, and a worker sign-on register, pre-start checklist and incident escalation flow. Your pit, sector, bench RL, TARP thresholds and geotechnical authority names are entered against the template. Sign-on covers everyone entering the bench — digger and haul truck operators, scaling crew, geotechnical technician and supervisor — and the worked example shows re-entry being authorised in writing on the bench inspection register.