Lost your mine surveyor?
We hold statutory appointments across Western Australia. Authorised Mine Surveyors at Grade 1 and Grade 2, on site and appointed — usually inside one to two weeks.
It usually happens with no notice
Your surveyor resigns, transfers, or doesn't come back off swing. The obligation to keep the position filled doesn't pause while you recruit, and the mine survey plan still has to be prepared, maintained and certified in the meantime.
The two appointments
Under the Work Health and Safety (Mines) Regulations 2022 (WA), the authorised mine surveyor is a statutory position. There are two of them, and they are not interchangeable.
Authorised mine surveyor (underground)
Requires an authorised mine surveyor's certificate at Grade 1. This is the appointment an underground operation needs, and Grade 2 does not cover it.
Authorised mine surveyor (quarry operation)
Accepts a certificate at Grade 1 or Grade 2. Grade 2 is confined to quarry operations — it is not a lesser version of the underground appointment.
The requirement is triggered by the plan, not by the size of the operation: the appointment is needed where a mine survey plan must be prepared and maintained. Certificates are granted by the regulator following assessment by the Surveyors Competence Advisory Committee.
The plan is the job
Most of the statutory weight sits in the mine survey plan — what it has to show, how accurate it has to be, and who signs it off.
Preparing and maintaining the plan
A mine survey plan is a plan, cross-section or three-dimensional plan of all or part of the mine, together with its supporting documentation and control databases. It can be electronic or paper. Underground plans are prepared and maintained by an authorised mine surveyor (underground); quarry operation plans by an authorised mine surveyor (quarry operation).
Accuracy and content
Fit-for-purpose instruments, good engineering practice, and an accuracy of not less than 1:5000 unless the regulator permits otherwise.
A datum station on Australian Height Datum with map grid references, GDA2020 and MGA2020, and the relationship between local grid and true bearings stated.
Enough detail of the workings to minimise risk from information gaps, including previous workings and information on adjacent mines.
Certified by the supervising authorised mine surveyor, in an approved form, that the plan is correct — and legible at scale when printed.
Availability and records
The current plan and every previous version must be kept available for inspection by workers and inspectors. Plans also have to be provided to the department in defined circumstances — when a mine is closed or suspended, and where a fatal accident site survey plan is required — which is where good record-keeping through a handover earns its keep.
For a swing or for the long run
Relief and cover
Annual leave, long service, parental leave, or the gap between one surveyor leaving and the next one starting. On your roster, 8:6 or 4:3.
Permanent appointment
Where it makes more sense to hold the appointment through us than to carry the position in-house — including new projects and restarts standing an appointment up from scratch.
Let's have a chat.
Tell us what is happening at site. Next swing or months away, we are happy to talk it through.