Why mining leaders are moving beyond paper permits to connected operational safety

Despite decades of progress, mining companies continue to face the challenge of preventing serious incidents. Recent fatality trends suggest that improving the consistent execution of critical controls remains a priority across the industry.

In 2025, fatalities at ICMM member companies declined to 39, compared with 42 in 2024. However, this remains higher than the 36 fatalities recorded in 2023 and 33 in 2022, highlighting that the industry continues to face a critical challenge: ensuring essential safety controls are executed consistently, every time.

The shift to connected safety

The latest report from the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) outlines worsening safety trends that contribute to rising fatality rates. The mining and metals industry should take notice:

• Fatalities aren’t isolated to a single country, with failure to follow procedures identified as a leading cause.
• Total work hours across the industry are increasing, broadening the window for potential risks and near misses.

This industry has historically been at the forefront of safety innovation.
Clearly, it faces new challenges that demand renewed progress.

Many companies still rely on manual or siloed solutions for operational safety, even as technologies like ROCs test these methods. This creates a contradiction:

In 73% of 2025 fatalities, critical controls failed to execute.

In many organizations, critical safety processes still rely on disconnected or manual workflows. These approaches can make it more difficult to consistently execute, verify and document critical controls across increasingly complex operations.

The industry must transition to digital, connected tools to turn around these downward trends.

Across the mining sector, the conversation has shifted from simply digitizing permits to connecting the people, processes and data that underpin safe work execution. According to Verdantix research, mining organizations are prioritizing digital process safety management workflows, centralized operational data and real-time collaboration between safety, engineering and operations teams. This reflects a broader industry trend:

Control of work is no longer viewed as a standalone compliance process, but as a critical component of an integrated operational risk strategy.

As organizations adopt more connected approaches, they are improving visibility into high-risk work, strengthening accountability and enabling more consistent execution of critical controls. The following example shows how one global mining company worked with Sphera to support this transformation.

Customer success story

One global mining company sought to strengthen both operational safety and maintenance efficiency by standardizing how permits, isolations and risk assessments were managed across its operations. Working with Sphera, the organization implemented connected digital workflows designed to improve consistency, reduce administrative burden and strengthen execution of critical controls.

Their approach to risk management stands out as a strong example of how digital transformation can make a real impact in high-risk environments.

The challenge

Recognizing ongoing gaps in high-risk work activities — even with electronic isolation systems in place — the company piloted and implemented an integrated digital permitting system in 2023.

Their primary goal: zero isolation system breaches, while also improving permit accuracy, risk assessment, communication, and control.

The solution

Sphera’s team transitioned manual, paper-based permits to a digitally integrated system. This significantly reduced administrative time and errors that had previously led to isolation breaches and miscommunication.

The digital solution also helped eliminate handwriting-related mistakes, ensured standardised risk assessments, and embedded critical prerequisite controls into workflows — helping to prevent failures in critical safety systems.

Results at a glance

By connecting permitting, isolation management and work execution into a single workflow, the organization achieved measurable operational improvements, including:

• Increased efficiency: Permit creation time was reduced from hours to minutes, expediting authorization for high-risk work.
• Fewer isolation breaches: Built-in approval protocols ensured safety measures were verified before work began.
• Enhanced visibility: The solution’s online/offline mobile application connected employees, contractors, and maintenance crews allowing area controllers to track real-time, high-risk work activities. This helped to improve oversight and surfacing additional opportunities to improve safety standards.
• Improved risk knowledge retention: Risk profiles, lessons learned and isolation records were digitized and easily accessible for future work planning and new generations of mining and metals employees.

This success highlights that prioritising safety doesn’t just benefit workers; it fosters efficiency and reinforces operational excellence.

What to look for in a safety platform

Digital solutions are making a difference. According to the 2025 Sphera Process Safety Report, 64% of process safety professionals report that technology is helping their businesses. And yet, only 47% use live risk data, and most organizations have not integrated risk assessment or predictive tools to make use of this data. It’s no wonder that the share of leaders feeling “very confident” about preventing accidents fell from 35% in 2024 to 27% in 2025.

Here’s what mining companies should consider when selecting digital safety solutions:

1. Industry-specific solutions for complex needs

Mining’s high-risk, complex environments demand tailored technology.

Key considerations include:

• Critical Control Checks: Digital tools should embed mandatory safeguards, reducing the risk of errors such as overlooked isolation checks.
• Mobile Safety Enhancements: Mobile-friendly dashboards displaying real-time site activities help assess hazards from equipment use and simultaneous operations (SIMOPs).

2. Embedded subject matter experts (SMEs)

As experienced professionals retire, nearly half (49%) of process safety experts cite the loss of institutional knowledge as a key risk driver. Partnering with vendors that provide both technology and subject matter expertise ensures knowledge is retained and applied effectively.

Seasoned experts can support hands-on training, promote system adoption and connect legacy practices to modern platforms—ensuring continuity and safety across generations of workers.

3. Scalability and inclusivity in risk management 

Operational safety must be embedded across all levels of the organization. However, in the 2025 Sphera Process Safety Report, only 20% of safety professionals rate their organization’s risk management maturity as optimized.

To increase adoption and impact:

• Involve frontline workers early in the digital transformation process
• Gather feedback to identify usability gaps and safety risks
• Provide mobile-friendly, intuitive tools that meet the expectations of digital-native employees

Engaged workers often become internal champions, accelerating implementation and fostering a culture of safety from the ground up.

The path to safer mining

As mining operations become more complex, many organizations are finding that connected operational safety systems help improve consistency, visibility and accountability across high-risk work. While technology alone cannot eliminate risk, it can support stronger execution of the critical controls that keep people safe.

Sphera works with mining organizations to connect permitting, isolations, risk assessments and work execution into integrated operational safety workflows—helping teams standardize processes, improve operational efficiency and strengthen safety performance.