GLOBAL MINING RiSC LLC To Reduce Risk

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Christensen, recently announced the creation of their joint venture, Global Mining RiSC LLC (“GMR”). This new corporation will be providing integrated, comprehensive risk analysis; safety and training oversight; and crisis avoidance-and-communications services for the worldwide mining industry.

It’s become obvious in the aftermath of recent mining incidents in the United States that mere compliance with existing regulations and laws does not provide the safest mine environment. According to a recent, independent investigatory body, the Mine Safety Technology and Training Commission, sponsored by the National Mining Association, NMA: “At the heart of (the Commission’s) approach is the call for a new paradigm for ensuring mine safety: one that focuses on systemic and comprehensive risk-management as the foundation from which all life-safety efforts emanate.” It is expected that regulatory agencies, financiers and insurers will see the benefits of GMR services for mining companies.

In the spirit of the Commission’s findings, GMR’s goal is to partner with senior management at coal, hard rock and aggregate operations to:

1. Conduct independent, comprehensive, and integrated analyses of operations’ risks, safety and environmental performance, and programs. GMR then provides management with recommendations to strengthen safety and environmental systems; and
2. Provide modern crisis avoidance tools by developing background information, action plans, training and key staff in the event of a serious incident.

Key in GMR’s ongoing efforts with at least annual frequency, will be to regularly assist each client company

* Providing industry experts to evaluate and implement new risk management plans
* Exposing vulnerabilities and fine tuning internal company risk training and crisis avoidance program;
* Conducting mock drills for designated mine staff, e.g. managers;
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* Preparing regularly updated, thorough and extensive communication plan to address potential incidents based upon GMR’s risk and safety-training oversight work;
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* Liaising with local and regional media and handling incident-related communications.
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“Mother Nature's geologic and other hazards will always be with us (in mining). The key is identifying the risks and training everyone, especially the supervisors, to be vigilant and work safely,” said Dave Zegeer, former United States Assistant Secretary of Labor, heading the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). “An immediate recommendation would be to have company mine inspectors spend one day each year with each employee, observing their work practices and providing appropriate (corrective) counsel as needed. The overarching goal moving forward is zero accidents equal zero fatalities.”

Incorporated near year end 2006, GMR has broad industry experience, spanning aggregates, coal and metal/non-metal sectors. J. Steven Gardner and Richard W. Phelps are GMR’s managing directors with combined, engineering/operations — ‘face’ to top-level — mining experience of over 70 years. GMR’s senior-level staff is similarly well seasoned in safety, training and communications/crisis-avoidance.

* J. Steven Gardner — President/CEO of Lexington, Kentucky-based ECSI. Gardner has worked as an engineer and manager in both mining operations and consulting engineering during his over-30-year career and served on a mine rescue team. He is a licensed professional engineer (KY, VA, WV and TN) and a licensed professional surveyor in WV. Additionally, Gardner was co-editor of the Coal Mining Reference Book published by the Kentucky Mining Institute, which is recommended by the Kentucky Office of Mine Safety and Licensing as a study guide for the mine foreman’s exam. His consulting practice focuses on energy, natural resources, environmental, health and safety, sensitive land use issues, and industrial heritage projects.
* Richard W. Phelps —Vice President, Christensen, has over 30 years of wide-ranging experience in the mining industry from silver and potash to coal and shaft sinking, with mining subsidiaries of several Fortune 500 companies, such as Atlantic Richfield and Bethlehem Steel, in activities ranging from mine foreman; major mine acquisition, design and permitting; applied R&D mine finance; consulting; and editorial management of the international Engineering & Mining Journal, where he also authored scores of feature articles on coal, metal and non-metal mining operations. He has served on the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) committee prioritizing mine-safety research. Phelps is a member of the Mining & Metallurgical Society of America and has also served on several committees of The Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration Inc. (SME) including the executive (coal division), minerals economics, and Mining Engineering (publication).

Additionally, Phelps serves in a leadership position in the coal-mine health-and-safety workgroup of the Asia-Pacific Partnership for Clean Development and Climate (Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea and the US). He has edited the first-ever Mining Environmental Handbook and served as an expert witness in mining environmental litigation aggregating over $1 billion.

Complementing the firm’s senior-level staff, GMR’s strong advisory board is comprised of prominent industry leaders who bring additional broad industry, technical and regulatory experience:

* Dr. R. Larry Grayson — Led the recent National Mining Association-sponsored, independent Mine Safety Technology and Training Commission. He established and leads the multi-year, $4-million, federal government-sponsored, western U.S. Mining Safety and Health Training and Translation Center (a consortium of western universities). Grayson has chaired the department of Mining and Nuclear Engineering, University of Missouri-Rolla and is its Union Pacific/Rocky Mountain Energy professor of Mining Engineering. He served as the associate director of the office of Mine Safety and Health Research, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) of the U.S. government, and oversaw the technical integration of the (now former) U.S. Bureau of Mines. He has broad mining experience as a miner, mine foreman and mine superintendent. Grayson is a registered professional engineer.
* David A. Zegeer — Former United States Assistant Secretary of Labor, for Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). Zegeer is an experienced mining executive, with several decades’ experience managing a large, multi-mine complex producing millions of tons annually.
* Dr. Stanley Suboleski — Recently served on the U.S. Department of Labor’s Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and has served on the National Review Board for Mining Safety and Health Research, NIOSH. Additionally, Suboleski has been a senior mining executive, including mining company boards of directors, a mining banker, chairman of the Pennsylvania State University’s mining engineering department and a professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute. He is active in the SME, having held a number of posts, including chairman of the coal division, member of the Board of Directors, and Secretary-Treasurer of the Central Appalachian section. He is a distinguished member of SME, a recipient of the SME’s Howard Eavenson Award and the AIME’s Erskine Ramsey Award. He is a registered professional engineer.
* Dr. John Wilson — Is an independent consultant with broad experience in international mining in Africa, Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. His decades of experience include executive- and mine-management and engineering in coal and metalliferous mines, as well as mining equipment and geotechnical-consulting companies. Additionally, Wilson provides management and engineering consulting services to a number of companies in the stone and aggregate industry. Wilson’s extensive mine engineering experience in underground coal, hard-rock mines comprises: Applied rock mechanics; Mine design and strata control in civil and mining projects; and health (including training in developing countries). He is a chartered engineer and Fellow with the Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, and Institute of Mining Engineers, England; South African Institute Mining and Metallurgy EUR ING, European Federation of National Engineering Associations.
* Robert Leahy — Managing Director, Christensen, has over 25 years’ experience in communications with particular knowledge of crisis and media management. He has been executive vice president and general manager of the New York office of the Financial Relations Board (comprised of some 70 small- to large-capitalization global companies). He has extensive experience in communications within the securities dealers and brokerage sectors, holding executive positions in fulfilling those duties. He is a member of the National Investor Relations Institute, National Association of Corporate Directors, the Public Relations Society of America and the National Press Club.

GMR has decades of mining-operations experience coupled with savvy crisis-management expertise. The team’s methodology also benefits from Dr. R. Larry Grayson’s firsthand knowledge gained in the aftermath of 2006’s mine-disaster investigations.

“The goal for all mining companies: zero fatalities. To accomplish this, every mine needs a sound risk analysis process,” said Dr. R. Larry Grayson. “Global Mining RiSC LLC will assist operators in meeting the challenges of 21st-century mining. The industry will benefit from the hands-on expertise of its professionals in risk/safety-training/communications offering a complete assessment of mine operations together with tools to improve results.”

Recently, the NMA-sponsored, independent Mine Safety Technology and Training Commission, which was formed in response to the three mine disasters of early 2006, issued its findings. GMR’s services are aligned with the Commission’s 75 recommendations aimed at providing a very high level of protection for miners. From the boardroom to the mine ‘face,’ GMR’s aim is continuous safety improvement, which protects both human and investor values.

SOURCE: Christensen

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