Qualitative prioritization of accident risks in the mining industry

The mining industry is one of the industries that present a high degree of risk due to the unique working environment. This paper aims to rank risks related to the health and safety of workers in the mining industry by using a multi-criteria decision-making method. For the risk assessment, the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP), which is based on the theory of fuzzy logic and can be used to deal with uncertain situations, was applied. An active underground mining project was selected as a case study, where, by observing the progress of the production process, the associated risks to health and safety were identified and recorded. Through the application of the FAHP, the risks identified in the case study and verified in the literature were ranked in order of importance based on the opinions of experts. The results of the risk assessment may guide all the stakeholders, i.e., project managers, workers, and public authorities, in the implementation of appropriate control measures to reduce or eliminate risk in this type of project.