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Controlling Dust, Fumes, Noise and Air Quality in Australian Mining

Best Practice

Australian mining has one of the most sophisticated safety cultures of any sector in the country, and the engineering controls now available for airborne hazards are genuinely effective. The challenge is that the hazards causing the most serious long term harm are invisible, so controlling them depends on choosing the right engineering solution and then proving it is still performing.

This guide sets out how to do that for the four hazards that matter most on a mine site: respirable dust, diesel exhaust, air quality at the working face, and noise.

The exposure standards and regulations that drive control selection
How to control dust at each stage of the mining process
How to manage diesel exhaust in enclosed and underground environments
What good auxiliary ventilation looks like at the working face
How to control noise at the source rather than rely on protection
How to demonstrate that each control is still doing its job

Step 1. Know the standards you are working to

Mining sits under a layered framework. General WHS duties apply, and on top of them sit state specific mining safety and health legislation, which in Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia carries its own inspectorate, its own reporting obligations and, for coal, its own dust limits and mandatory health surveillance.

There are four key Workplace Exposure Limits (WELs) to be aware of.

Respirable crystalline silica: 0.05 mg/m³ as an eight hour time weighted average. Since September 2024 there are also specific duties around processing crystalline silica substances, including a risk assessment to determine whether the work is high risk.
Respirable coal dust: set by the state mining regulators and lower than the general dust standard, so check the limit for your jurisdiction.
Noise: 85 dB(A) over eight hours, with a peak of 140 dB(C), under regulation 56 of the model WHS Regulations.
Diesel particulate matter: from 1 December 2026 Safe Work Australia is introducing a national workplace exposure limit of 0.01 mg/m³, measured as respirable elemental carbon and averaged over an eight hour working day. States and territories may implement it in different ways, so confirm the position in your jurisdiction. Sites running significant underground diesel fleets should be planning against that figure now rather than reacting later.

Where a worker is exposed to respirable crystalline silica or coal dust, health monitoring including respiratory function testing and chest imaging is required, with results provided to the worker and retained. Treat that as a backstop rather than a control, because it detects harm that has already happened.

Step 2. Control dust at the point it is generated

Dust is released at almost every stage: drilling, blasting, loading, haulage, crushing, screening, conveyor transfer, stockpiling and rehandling. Silica content depends entirely on the geology, so a quarry cutting sandstone and a gold operation in a quartz host rock will both exceed the silica standard without effective control.

Hazards must be managed in line with the hierarchy of control. Where a hazard cannot be eliminated or substituted, suitable engineering controls must be implemented.

Water suppression at transfer points and on haul roads, remembering that it only works while surfaces stay wet and can degrade road surfaces if overdone.
Enclosure and extraction at crushing and screening plant, capturing dust at the source rather than diluting it afterwards.
On tool extraction for maintenance tasks such as grinding, cutting and concrete work, which are routinely overlooked because they are treated as trade work rather than mining work.
Mobile dust suppression on stockpiles and during rehabilitation or demolition activity, where fixed capture is impractical.

Administrative controls have a genuine place, particularly rotation away from high exposure tasks and scheduling dusty work when fewer people are present, but they reduce individual dose without reducing the hazard. Respiratory protection is last, and only works with fit testing, clean shaven faces and a maintenance regime.

Step 3. Manage diesel exhaust and welding fume

Diesel engine exhaust is a Group 1 human carcinogen, and exposure concentrates wherever plant runs in an enclosed or partially enclosed space: underground development, workshops, tunnels, shafts and enclosed processing buildings.

Maintain the fleet, because a poorly maintained engine produces dramatically more particulate than a well maintained one.
Fit diesel particulate filters where the duty cycle allows, and monitor their loading.
Extract exhaust at source in workshops and maintenance bays rather than relying on general building ventilation.
Ventilate enclosed working areas to dilute what cannot be captured.
Enforce idling restrictions, which cost nothing and remove a meaningful share of enclosed space exposure.
Measure elemental carbon so you know where you actually stand.

Welding and cutting during maintenance are a separate hazard. Welding fume is itself a Group 1 carcinogen, and stainless steel work adds hexavalent chromium. Local exhaust ventilation at the arc, not general dilution ventilation across the workshop, is the control.

Step 4. Get the air right at the working face

Underground, ventilation is the primary control for everything airborne. Primary ventilation is a mine design matter, engineered and managed by the mine's ventilation officer. Auxiliary ventilation is what serves the working face, the development heading, the sump, the cutout and maintenance activity, and it is where hired and temporary equipment does the work.

Select a fan and ducting suitable for the task in hand rather than whatever happens to be available. Specialist ventilation providers, such as RVT Group, can calculate airflow requirements for you.
Keep ducting intact, because a torn or badly jointed duct can lose most of its delivered air before it reaches the working area.
Position the discharge close enough to sweep the face, and get the direction right, because forcing and exhausting arrangements suit different tasks and the wrong one recirculates contaminants over the crew.
Treat confined space entries separately, with their own ventilation plan, atmospheric testing before entry and continuous monitoring during it.

Step 5. Control noise at the source rather than rely on protection

Crushers, screens, conveyors, compressors, generators, haul fleet and ventilation fans run continuously, and noise induced hearing loss remains one of the most commonly accepted compensation claims in the sector. The controls that work are the ones applied to the source and the path.

Acoustic enclosures around fixed sources such as generators and compressors.
Acoustic screens and barriers between the source and the working position.
Operator isolation through cabins and remote operation.
Damping and maintenance on impact noise sources such as screens and chutes.
Rotation to limit dose, with hearing protection as the last line.

Boundary noise deserves separate attention where an operation sits near a community. Consent conditions typically set night time limits well below anything relevant to worker exposure, and those are the limits most likely to be enforced by complaint.

Step 6. Prove the controls are still working

Every control above should be paired with a measurement that demonstrates it. Real time dust and noise monitoring at the working position, with alarms set below the exposure standard, converts a control from an assumption into a verified system, and gives you the before and after comparison that justifies the spend to the operation.

The pattern behind most long term harm on mine sites is not an absence of controls. It is controls that were installed correctly, degraded quietly, and were never measured again.

Working with RVT Group Australia

RVT Group Australia provides dust control, fume extraction, ventilation, noise control and environmental monitoring equipment on hire to mining, quarrying, infrastructure, construction and industrial operations across Australia. Hiring gives you current specification equipment for the duration of the task, without the capital cost or the maintenance obligation, and with specialist support on configuration and placement.

Every hire begins with a site assessment, so the equipment is matched to the hazard, the environment and the standard you have to meet.

Book a free site assessment and demonstration, or call the team on 1300 086 248.