The International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) developed an industry good practice on the management of risks associated with fatal and catastrophic events, called Critical Control Management (CCM). The ICMM CCM guideline was issued in 2015 and is the culmination of the 23 member companies’ view on good risk management practice. The CCM process represents the next step in risk management evolution in the mining industry.
The Critical Control Management (CCM) process is a step-by-step approach consisting of ten steps. Each step follows sequentially on the previous step, but there are some steps which may trigger a feedback loop to an earlier step. There are also specific steps (Step 4, Step 5 and Step 7) which require a structured consideration, based on the outcome of the step execution, for adjustment of the previous step.
The process is distinctively divided into a planning group (first six steps) and an implementation group (last four steps). To facilitate the effective implementation of CCM it is critical that the appropriate skills, experience and resources are made available to implement the process to a high standard. It is also required that each of the ten steps are comprehensively executed for the CCM process to deliver the value potential.
The initial effort in implementing the CCM process is significant, but the downstream value and reduction of wasted effort much more so.
The CCM process is illustrated below highlighting dependencies and feedback loops. Each step in the process has a target outcome that should be achieved before moving on to the next step. The table below lists the targets outcomes associated with each step of the process.
