Andrew Lewin
Andrew Lewin
Director Health, Safety and Risk
SSR Mining
Learnings from the implementation of Critical and Catastrophic Risk frameworks
The management of risks where the consequence is single or multiple fatalities has occupied safety professionals, operational leaders and regulators for many years. From the UK Safety case regime post Piper alpha to the mining industry’s Critical Control Management, risk frameworks have been developed to address the continual unwanted events.
So, what have we learned from the application of these processes and frameworks? Why do we continue to experience both very high consequence, low probability (catastrophic) events, as well as single fatality events across hazardous industries? I will explore these questions using some examples and develop some key, practical lessons that can be taken away and applied.
Andrew began his career as a forensic investigator of fires and explosions, providing advice to insurers and as an expert witness. He moved into the oil and gas industry post-Piper Alpha to assist with “Safety Cases”, the risk management tool put in place to identify, assess and control major accident events.
He moved to Australia in 2001, assisting with the development of an offshore regulatory authority. In 2004 he joined Zinifex (a zinc mining company, now MMG), followed by BHP and Newmont, in corporate Health, Safety and risk roles. He was instrumental in the development of Critical Risk management, including the seminal ICMM guidance on Critical Control Management.
During his career, spanning more than 25 years, he has designed and led “safety leadership”, risk based HSE audit and operational risk management programs, across oil and gas and mining. Andrew is also an experienced incident investigator, sadly having been involved with many fatality investigations. His focus continues to be the prevention of workplace fatalities.