The mine is more than the ground it sits on. It is buildings, plant infrastructure, commercial assets, and every liability that comes with operating one — and the income stream that stops the moment something goes wrong. This is where we start every risk review.
Buildings, processing infrastructure, offices, stores, workshops and fixed plant — insured to reinstatement value, not book value, so a loss doesn't become a funding gap.
Head offices, processing plants, workshops, stores and ancillary structures on the mining lease area.
Conveyors, crushers, processing infrastructure and other fixed installations that keep production running.
Equipment, spares, consumables and stock held on site, valued for full reinstatement.
Combined fire and all-risk structures covering the site against sudden, unforeseen physical loss or damage.
Mining carries liability exposure well beyond the site boundary — to the public, to employees, and to the environment. We structure liability programmes around the specific risk profile of the operation.
Third-party bodily injury and property damage arising from mining operations, including off-site impact.
Cover for claims by employees beyond statutory workmen's compensation, including negligence claims.
Pollution, contamination and rehabilitation exposure — increasingly scrutinised by regulators and lenders.
Protection for decision-makers against claims arising from the management of the operation.
Asset cover replaces what's damaged. Business interruption cover replaces what's lost while it's being replaced — gross profit, standing charges, and the additional cost of working to keep operations moving. This is quantified upfront in a dedicated Business Interruption document, not left to a claims-time estimate.
Loss of gross profit and continuing fixed costs — wages, finance costs, contractual obligations — during the indemnity period.
The indemnity period is set to reflect true reinstatement time for specialised mining plant, not a generic default.
Additional expenditure incurred to minimise the reduction in output — alternative processing, expedited freight, temporary hire.
A standalone, pre-agreed Business Interruption calculation methodology, so sums insured and claims logic are settled before there's ever a loss.
This sequence runs on a loop: normal production → a mill failure → downstream stoppage → recovery under a properly structured programme. This is the exposure a critical-asset survey maps before it happens.
Asset cover pays to repair or replace what is damaged — buildings, fixed plant, contents and stock. Business interruption cover responds to what the mine loses while that work is happening: gross profit, continuing standing charges such as wages and finance costs, and the increased cost of working to keep output moving. They are separate calculations, and a mine can be fully insured on assets and still materially underinsured on income.
Four come up on nearly every mining programme: public liability for injury or damage to third parties, employers' liability for harm to employees, environmental liability for pollution and rehabilitation exposure, and directors' and officers' liability for claims against the board personally. Which of these you need, and at what limits, depends on the operation, its contracts and its regulatory obligations.
It should reflect the real time to reinstate the operation, not a default twelve months. For specialised mining plant that means allowing for procurement lead times, shipping, installation, commissioning and the ramp back to full output. Long-lead items such as mills, crushers and transformers frequently push the realistic period well beyond a year. We model this rather than assume it.
Accounting values and insurance values answer different questions. Book value reflects depreciation; an insurance sum insured needs to reflect what reinstatement would actually cost today, including escalation and the cost of getting equipment to a remote site. Gross profit for BI purposes is also defined by the policy wording, not by the income statement. This is why we set the basis out in writing before a loss rather than arguing it afterwards.
