Safety is not a line on a graph: mining must design it in from the start or risk repeating old mistakes in the critical minerals rush

Mining loves a neat correlation – tonnes per shift, dollars per ounce, emissions per unit, but as Peter Burton pointed out at AusIMM’s Critical Minerals 2025 in Perth, one thing that refuses to fit a tidy graph is safety performance.

Peter, HSE manager at Hitachi Rail and a veteran of health, safety, environment and community leadership across resources and heavy industry, challenged delegates to rethink how safety outcomes are shaped. With more than three decades of experience – from emergency response and community leadership to roles at Fortescue, Atlas Iron, Karara Mining, Warrikal and Hitachi Rail – he has seen plenty of data. But it’s the story behind the numbers that matters.

Do prices really drive safety?

“Do commodity prices impact safety outcomes?” Peter asked. Using Western Australian quarterly safety data, he compared lithium’s wild price swings against total recordable injury frequency rates (TRIFR). The result was far from straightforward.

“At the peak of global lithium prices, we recorded one of the best safety quarters. By the time the market had slumped, injury rates were still climbing,” he said.

For Peter, this contradiction underscores that safety is not a simple function of market cycles. “Those lines and numbers represent people that have been injured. We can’t ignore that volatility and uncertainty play into stress, leadership changes, and stretched workloads – and those things have real impacts on safety.”

Safety starts at the beginning

Peter’s second challenge was about timing. “When does safety start? The answer is: immediately.”

He argued that safety has to be designed into projects from the outset, not bolted on later. Drawing on his time in processing plants, he recounted the example of rotable chutes designed to improve safe maintenance. “We spend millions on these systems, but when the pressure is on to hit production targets, they get bypassed. Instead of pulling a chute, people go into the guts of the plant to patch it up – and that’s when they get hurt.”

The lesson? Operating as per design isn’t just about throughput. “Safe productivity and safe maintainability are two sides of the same coin.”

A safety lens for innovation

Peter urged the audience to apply a “safety lens” to every new tool and technology shaping the critical minerals sector. From geospatial mapping to automation, the innovations that drive efficiency can also be used to protect people.

“We’re all leaders in this room,” he told delegates. “So when you hear about new technology or new processing methods, put your safety glasses on and ask: how does this help protect our people?”

Why it matters for critical minerals

For a sector defined by volatility, emerging technologies and global strategic pressure, Peter’s message cut through the noise: safety performance is a leadership choice, not just a compliance measure.

The critical minerals industry is positioning itself as a cornerstone of Australia’s decarbonisation journey. But without embedding safety in design, leadership and workforce culture, the boom risks repeating old mistakes.

As Peter put it, “We’ve been playing this game for a long time, and yet we’re still hitting a plateau on safety. The real challenge is how we lead – because safe operations are built from the very start.”