In the mining industry, employees step into environments every day where serious risks are part of their work. The challenge in avoiding injury isn’t just the hazards themselves, but how easily routine can make danger feel like part of the job.
Throughout 2025, New Gold implemented Critical Risk Management, or CRM, across the company. CRM is a systematic process that exists to prevent serious injuries or death on the job, and seeks to close the gap between assumption and certainty when it comes to safety. At New Afton, before any task begins, employees identify any critical risks that the job poses and determines the controls—or measures to reduce or remove hazards—required to prevent a fatal event or serious injury. Then comes the most important step: physically verifying the controls in the field. Hands on and with focused attention, crews confirm the controls are in place, functioning, and strong enough to hold if something goes wrong. If the control is not effective, they stop working until it’s proven safe.
“When someone stops work because a critical control is not proven, that is not disruption,” explains Kevin Mihalicz, New Gold’s Director of Health & Safety and Emergency Preparedness. “That is courage, and it is exactly the behaviour we want.”
CRM is not one person’s job; the system relies on a shared accountability across three key levels of ownership. Workers bring their firsthand knowledge of the task and the risk, supervisors step into the field to listen, observe, and reinforce that safety comes first, and leaders back every decision to slow down or stop when something does not look right.
When critical risks are identified and controls are proven, the outcome is simple: people go home safely. With shared ownership and accountability for safety, trust strengthens and conversations about risk become real, reinforcing the importance of shifting from doing the task the usual way to choosing care, clarity, and protection every time.
