From L to R: Graham Clarke, Operations Director, Sirius Minerals; Ian Hayton, Managing Director, CFB Risk Management; and Nigel Chapman, Head of Health and Safety, Sirius Minerals.
Tees-based CFB Risk Management has announced its biggest contract win to date – a multi-million pound agreement to protect the major £2.9bn Sirius Minerals Mine project in North Yorkshire.
CFB Risk Management, established in 2011 as the first company of its kind to be set up by a UK fire authority, will provide 24 hour, seven days a week integrated preparedness and response services across all of the project’s locations. CFB Risk Management will protect assets, equipment, workforce and the local community during the five-year construction period and when the project becomes operational.
Welcoming the highly significant contract, won in the face of strong competition from around the UK, Managing Director Ian Hayton said, “This is our biggest contract to date and a massive vote of confidence in our technical expertise, innovative approach and highly professional and skilled workforce.”
As a result, additional highly skilled emergency management and security professionals have now joined CFB Risk Management’s growing workforce, bringing the current team of permanent employees to around 100, as this new contract will involve significant manpower requirements for many years. They have all undergone specialised training to meet the particular challenges of dealing with emergencies in a mining environment and ensuring the round-the-clock safety of the workforces employed by both Sirius and the project’s contractors.
The UK’s first new sub-surface mine development for 40 years is already under construction near Whitby. Sirius Minerals PLC, a multi-national and world-leading fertiliser company, plans to invest billions of pounds into the project, which will produce an initial 10m tonnes each year of polyhalite, a highly effective fertiliser to be marketed as POLY4. The project will create thousands of jobs in construction, mining and in the supply chain, which Sirius is proud to support, bringing enormous economic benefits to the area.
“This is a multi-billion pound project for Sirius Minerals and currently the second largest construction project in the UK and one of the biggest in Europe,” said Ian Hayton. “We are proud to have been entrusted with securing and protecting such a major investment that will provide a massive boost to the economy.
“Our integrated emergency preparedness and response services are in place across all the project’s key locations and are designed to allow Sirius to focus on its core activities, secure in the knowledge that the entire project is protected 24/7 by world class security and emergency arrangements for many years to come.
“Our workforce is one of the largest in the UK with the skills and competence needed to deal with emergencies that occur in high hazard industries and we already provide our services to some of the world’s largest chemical, plastics, nuclear and power companies that operate to strict safety regulations.
“I am sure that our unique expertise and experience within the high hazard sector has been a major factor in securing this contract and we invested considerable time and commitment into providing Sirius Minerals with a pioneering and tailored solution to meet the needs of today’s mining industry.”
“There is nothing more important to us than the safety of our staff,” said Nigel Chapman, Head of Health and Safety at Sirius Minerals. “We needed to partner with someone who was capable of delivering world-class safety and security procedures and rigorous emergency protocols and was capable of applying them to the unique challenges of a deep mine.
“The fact that we managed to find this expertise locally on Teesside with CFB Risk Management is a huge bonus, as we are committed to ensuring that local people share in the economic benefits from the project as much as possible.”
With a recently established office in Abu Dhabi, CFB Risk Management is winning contacts in the Middle East as well as across the UK and Europe. Its services include technical consultancy and fire engineering, emergency planning, training and exercising, integrated security and emergency management.
