We know most insurers avoid covering mining. That’s why we work with underwriters who back contractors in high-risk industries like coal mining, shutdown maintenance, heavy machinery transport, fabrication, and onsite repairs.
Mining insurance packages available for:
Underground contractors
Mobile plant operators and diesel fitters
Truck, crane and equipment transport
Fabricators, welders, and shutdown crews
Plus more—see full list below
Professional
tailored advice
Competitively
priced polices
Comprehensive
cover option
Professional
tailored advice
Competitively
priced policies
Comprehensive
cover options
Mining contractors face a unique set of risks that standard business insurance often doesn’t cover. Whether you’re involved in shutdown maintenance, fabrication, welding, line boring, or site logistics, most insurers won’t include cover if any work is done on or near mine sites especially above or below ground.
Managing a business in the mining industry exposes you, your colleagues, your employees and the company to several risks. Whether it be an error made by a manager or an injured worker, one unfortunate event could result in a Workcover claim, financial and personal consequences.
Mining Contractors Insurance is designed to fill those gaps. It ensures your business is properly protected when working in high-risk mining environments, whether that’s in coal, hard rock, or exploration operations. The two core policies most mining contractors need are Public Liability Insurance and Professional Indemnity Insurance, and in many cases, both are required to meet site access and contractor compliance requirements.
Public Liability Insurance protects your business if your work causes injury to a third party or damages property. For example, if a subcontractor is injured while on a shutdown you’re managing, or if machinery you’re operating damages mine infrastructure, a claim could follow.
Many off-the-shelf policies exclude mining-related work. We work with insurers who are willing to provide cover for mine site activities, including work performed during outages, maintenance programs, and exploration support. This policy also covers legal defence costs if a claim is made against you.
If your business provides reports, designs, advice, or other services for a fee—such as geotechnical work, mine planning, or safety systems—you’ll need Professional Indemnity Insurance.
This policy covers you if a client claims your work caused them financial loss. For instance, if a faulty inspection report leads to a shutdown or safety breach, and you’re found liable, PI insurance helps cover legal costs and compensation.
Public Liability won’t protect against this type of claim—so if your business gives advice or signs off on compliance documents, PI cover is essential.
Need a mining insurance broker who can assist with Mining Contractor Insurance? We've got you covered.
We understand that just running the day to day operation of your business takes a lot of time. This is why we provide the perfect solution for business owners with regards to their insurance. We provide you all of the information that you need to make sure you are covered correctly. We provide simple, straight forward and fully managed mining insurance policies.
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Mining can be a high risk industry, even if you’ve had years of experience. This is why it’s crucical for you to find the right type of insurance for your business.
With an industry like mining, there are unique requirements that a mining contractors insurance should include.
Understand Exclusions on mining insurance policies
Don’t just focus on what your policy includes, this is the trap that most mining contractors fall into is that they purchase a public liability or professional indemnity insurance policy and don’t read through any of the exclusions. We ensure that any exclusions that applied to your policy are made very clear.
Assess the listed occupation on your policy
Every mining contractors insurance policy will have a description of your occupation or the professional services that you provide. Ensure that this is accurate to what you actually do.
Underground work needs to be added
Underground operations are generally excluded on most policies however, our mining insurance policies has the option to include cover for underground works.
These are the most frequent occupations that require professional indemnity cover however, we can consider most occupations depending on the professional services that are being provided.
There are 2 places to find exclusions that apply to insurance for miners, one would be in the product disclosure statement and the other would be via an endorsement on your policy schedule. a PDS exclusion is a general exclusion that applies to all occupations and an endorsement exclusion is generally triggered by the occupation being set or an answer to a question set by the insurer.
There is no actual policy that is called mining contractors insurance it is however, what we refer to as a cluster of different types of policies that may be available based on your occupation, size, structure and industries that you work within. Some of the main things that we can provide cover for are:
It’s not as though the site itself is considered high risk. In fact mine sites have more health and safety protocols in place than most other businesses.
The high risk exposure that the insurer is concerned about is the potential costs of damages that could occur.
For example, if you shut a whole mine site down for even just 1 day the costs associated with that would be huge. Let alone fixing the damage that caused it.
Yes, we do.
We work with both incidental mining contractors and contractors that just work with mine sites.
Depending on your occupation and the work that you do will determine whether our insurers will accept cover for underground work. We have placed many insurance policies for underground mining contractors.
No, not necessarily by law however, you could potentially be in breach of your contractors agreement if it is a requirement of the mine site to be insured for specific types of insurances. It is recommended that you speak with your insurance broker to determine the appropriate cover for your business requirements as it is important to note that the specific insurances that a mine site asks for doesn’t necessarily cover all potential exposures to your business and could lead to significant losses.
A Public liability insurance policy will only cover the costs that you are legally liable for in the event of personal injury or property damage occurring.
Certain policies will allow you to have errors and omissions cover added to your policy however, it could also be recommended that a separate professional indemnity policy be taken out depending on the type of work that you are doing.
Yes, defence costs are typically covered under a public liability insurance policy for mining contractors.
Professional Indemnity policies can also provide this cover however, it depends on what occurs as to which policy would provide the coverage.
Personal injury and property damage would be covered by a public liability policy and financial losses would be covered under a professional indemnity policy.
Yes, it is recommended that any separate business operating under their own ABN should have their own insurances in place. A primary contractors policy will only provide cover to the primary contractor however, unless a subrogation waiver or hold harmless agreement has been signed then there is a good chance that the primary contractors policy will seek recovery from the subcontractor in the event that they are solely liable.
Generally speaking, income protection is generally sourced through a financial planner as this is a personal insurance protection.
However, we are able to source personal accident and illness insurance for miners which is designed to provide a form of income protection insurance for miners but for a limited time.
The main differences between traditional income protection and personal accident and illness cover is a personal accident and illness policy will only cover you for a defined period of time (1, 2 or 3 years) whereas traditional income protection will cover you up until a defined age (retirement age or age 65).
Why should you use Priority Insurance Brokers to arrange your Mining Insurance?
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