Mine Operations and Maintenance Insurance
Shutdown crews, maintenance trades and fabricators keep mines running - and work closest to the plant that costs the most when something goes wrong.
$20M
Limits placed repeatedly
Multiple
Specialist markets tested per placement
Australia
National market access
Recognition
The Tank take
Maintenance, shutdown and fabrication contractors on mine sites usually need public and products liability at the site's required limit, commonly $20 million, with tools and equipment, commercial motor and personal accident or workers compensation built around it. Hot works, work on operating fixed plant and care-custody-control treatment are the wording issues that matter most.
Tank has placed $20 million liability for mine-services trades on multiple occasions, including new ventures and sole operators. Each placement reflects its own facts; none establishes a standard price or guaranteed appetite.
What shapes appetite for mine-services trades
A boilermaker doing workshop fabrication and the same boilermaker running hot works on a live conveyor are different submissions. Underwriters price the environment and the method, not the trade name.
Hot works
Welding, cutting and grinding on site drive fire exposure and attract specific conditions, permits and exclusions. Declare where hot works happen and under what controls.
Fixed plant proximity
Working on crushers, mills, conveyors and processing infrastructure puts high-value client property in your care, custody or control - a commonly restricted head of cover.
Shutdown intensity
Shutdowns compress many contractors into short windows on live plant. Coordination, permits and supervision records become the evidence that matters.
Structure and scale
Sole operators and new ventures can be placed - Tank has done it - but appetite is narrower, and the submission has to carry more of the load.
Claims maintenance contractors should plan around
Cover is never automatic: each allegation must fall within the insuring clause and remains subject to exclusions, limits, excess and conditions.
A weld spark or cutting slag igniting conveyor belting, spillage or infrastructure. Permits, fire watches and extinguisher records are both WHS controls and the evidence a claim will turn on.
The item you are repairing is the item your work is in closest contact with - and the item most exposed to care-custody-control restrictions. Check the wording's treatment before, not after.
A failed weld or component causing later damage. Rectifying your own work is commonly excluded; resulting damage to other property may be treated differently, depending on the wording and facts.
Lifting operations around fixed plant concentrate severity. Declare cranage and rigging activities, whether owned or hired, and who performs them.
Mines are multi-employer workplaces. Injury to another contractor's worker connected to your work area or equipment is a liability question; your own crew sits with workers compensation.
Mine-site work needs the right market, not more form-filling
Tell us what you do, which sites you access and the limit your contract requires. We take it to insurers with genuine appetite for mining contractors.
Verified placements for mine-services trades
Real Tank placements, anonymised, premiums rounded up. Historical outcomes and process evidence - not quotes.
A newly commenced WA business offering coded welding, pipework and fabrication for above-ground mining and marine environments needed $20 million public liability, with a director-only start-up structure and modest forecast turnover. The submission distinguished the new entity's start-up structure from the operator's decades of industry experience, putting both in front of the underwriter. Eight markets recorded declines on the risk. We presented the specific work profile - mobile coded welding, pipework, fabrication and mechanical refurbishment, with occasional heights and confined spaces disclosed - to specialist markets.
The result: $20M public liability placed at around $4,600 per year through a specialist underwriting agency.
A sole-director boilermaker building a mine-maintenance business alongside employment needed $20 million public liability and tools cover, with revenue around $100,000. Seven submissions were declined before terms were secured - the number varies case by case, depending on the scale and type of work, the individual contractor, the site and several other factors. The submission documented the modest scale of the operation and the specific work performed.
The result: $20M public liability and tools of trade placed at around $1,700 per year, with commercial motor for the work vehicle arranged alongside.
A WA sole-trader plastic-fusion specialist needed $20 million public liability to keep working on WA mine sites. Eight mainstream insurers declined. We separated what the client actually did - off-site poly-pipe welding with no hot works, no plant operation and no earthmoving - from what underwriters assume when they hear 'mine site'.
The result: $20M public liability placed at around $3,200 per year, with indicative terms back within about a day.
Premiums and outcomes described are specific to each client and indicative only. Your own terms will depend on your circumstances and the insurer.
The program around the liability anchor
Liability meets the contract requirement; the rest of the program protects the business itself.
Usually covered
- Legal liability for third-party injury arising from insured site and workshop operations
- Third-party property damage, including fire damage from insured hot works, subject to the wording
- Products liability for fabricated components supplied or installed
- Principal's indemnity and contractual endorsements where required and available
- Defence costs - confirm their treatment against the limit
Needs its own section
- Welders, tools and site equipment - portable equipment or tools cover
- Utes and service vehicles - commercial motor
- Your own injury as a working director - personal accident, since workers compensation may not apply
- Rectifying defective work - commonly excluded
- Design or engineering certification - professional indemnity
Sole operators should note the personal accident point specifically: a director working in the business may sit outside the workers compensation scheme in some structures and states.
When the quote's wording doesn't match the work
In one welding placement, the quotation carried a hot-work exclusion heading even though welding was the core declared activity. Rather than leave the client to interpret a heading in isolation, we queried it with the underwriter before binding. The underwriter confirmed the activity was covered subject to the policy's hot-work condition, which required hot work to comply with the applicable Australian Standard. That was one schedule's condition at one point in time, not a market rule - but the lesson generalises: if a heading on your quote appears to exclude the thing you actually do, get written clarification before you bind, not after a claim.
The same schedules illustrated how far a $20 million headline limit is from an all-risks package. Occupation-specific terms we have seen on mine-services schedules include dam and tailings exclusions, goods-on-hook exclusions, tower-crane exclusions and silica exclusions - and one business serving marine environments found its schedule excluded watercraft and vessel work entirely. An industry label is not proof that every activity associated with that industry is covered. Each of these reflects one insurer's appetite on one risk and is subject to change; the point is to read the schedule against your actual work.
Contractor management and the regulatory layer
Operating mines run formal contractor management systems: inductions, permits to work, hot-work authorisations, isolation procedures and verification of insurance before access. These derive from mine safety legislation that varies by state - Safe Work Australia publishes national model guidance, while bodies such as the NSW Resources Regulator and WA's mines safety regulator administer the rules that actually apply on site. Check the jurisdiction where each site sits.
For insurance purposes, the same documents that get you through the gate strengthen the submission: induction records, permit systems, hot-work procedures and evidence of scale and supervision. Underwriters read them as evidence the risk is managed, though no set of documents guarantees a market will quote.
Check the rules where the site sits
Mine safety and licensing duties are state-based and sit outside your insurance policy. These regulator sources are the starting point.
External government sources. Tank Insurance is not responsible for their content; confirm current requirements with the regulator in the relevant state or territory.
More mining insurance guides
Questions about mine operations and maintenance insurance
Usually public and products liability at the limit site contracts require, commonly $20 million, plus tools and equipment cover, commercial motor, and workers compensation or personal accident depending on structure. Hot works and work on fixed plant should be disclosed specifically.
Yes, in the right circumstances. Tank has placed $20 million limits for sole operators and new ventures in mine-services trades on multiple occasions, including after other insurers declined. Placement always depends on the complete risk information and market appetite at the time.
Damage to property in your care, custody or control - which can include the plant being serviced - is commonly restricted or sub-limited. Check the wording's treatment against the work you actually do, and raise high-value fixed-plant work explicitly.
Check your policy's subcontractor conditions. One mine-services schedule we reviewed required the insured to use best endeavours to ensure subcontractors held public and products liability at no less than the schedule limit. Conditions vary by insurer and wording, so disclose the subcontracting arrangement and confirm what your policy actually requires.
Insurer appetite for mine-site trades is narrower than for general contracting, and quoting platforms can decline an occupation automatically before an underwriter ever sees the risk. A decline reflects one market's appetite, not the whole market - a specific, well-documented submission to the right markets can still find terms.
General information only. This page does not take account of your objectives, financial situation or needs and is not legal or WHS advice. Cover depends on the insurer, policy wording, limits, excesses, exclusions and information disclosed. Read the relevant policy documents and obtain professional advice before deciding.
Put your mining risk in front of the right markets
Tell us what you do, which sites you work on and the limit your contract requires. We will explain the available terms and exclusions before you decide.