The Mine Site Mobilisation Checklist Every Contractor Should Have

Most gate turnarounds aren’t caused by complicated compliance failures. They’re caused by something simple — a ticket expired three weeks ago, a worker forgot to complete a re-induction, a medical lapsed on a long weekend. The kind of thing that’s obvious in hindsight and avoidable with the right checklist run before mobilisation, not after.

What follows is a complete mine site mobilisation checklist for Australian contractors. It’s organised around the three layers that matter on a mine gate: the worker, the equipment, and the documentation that proves both are ready. Print it, adapt it, or run it through your compliance system.

Part 1: Worker readiness — 14 days out

The 14-days-out window is when things are still easy to fix. Run this check on every worker in the planned mobilisation:

• Identity verification: photo ID matches the worker profile, full name and DOB align with credentials held
• General site induction current: completed within the validity period for the destination site
• Site-specific induction current: each site has its own. Check the right one for this mobilisation
• Role-specific induction: if the worker is doing specialist work (operating mobile plant, working at heights, confined space entry), the role-specific induction is current
• Required tickets: every ticket the role demands is held and unexpired. Common items: working at heights, confined space, gas test atmosphere, low-voltage rescue, first aid, traffic management, RIIWHS204D (work safely at heights — surface mining)
• VoCs (Verification of Competency): equipment-specific VoCs are current for the gear they’ll operate. Don’t assume — VoCs expire and need re-verification per the site’s rules
• Medical assessment: pre-employment, periodic, or specialist medicals as required (coal-board medicals for QLD/NSW coal work, etc.)
• Drug and alcohol policy acknowledgement: signed and current
• Fitness for work: any restrictions, light duties, or return-to-work plans flagged
• PPE confirmed: hi-vis, safety boots, helmet, glasses, gloves — and any site-specific items (FRC, snake gaiters, hearing protection class)
• Right to work: visa and work authorisation valid for the project duration
• Site contact information: emergency contact, next of kin, and any health conditions the site needs to know about (controlled — but the data needs to be current)

Part 2: Equipment readiness — 14 days out

If equipment is going through the gate alongside workers, the same lead time applies:

• Asset register entry: every item has a unique identifier (asset number, plate, serial), recorded in your system
• Last service date: within the manufacturer’s recommended interval. Heavy gear especially — don’t roll out equipment that’s overdue
• Inspection certificate: annual inspection, structural inspection, or whatever the site requires
• Calibration certificate: for instruments (gas detectors, NDT tools, anemometers, dust monitors) — calibration is to date and traceable
• Registration: vehicle rego, plant registration, off-road permits if required
• Insurance: covers the asset, the work being done, and the destination site
• Pre-start check records: recent pre-start logs for the gear to confirm operability
• Site-specific approval: mine-specific approvals (e.g., explosion-protected equipment for hazardous areas) where applicable
• Operator competency confirmed: the worker assigned to operate the gear has the current VoC for it
• Mobilisation logistics: float booking, escort if oversize, route planning, fuel/charging if applicable

Part 3: Documentation pack — 7 days out

By 7 days out, you should have a documentation pack ready to either upload to the client portal or carry to the gate:

• Contractor business approval: prequalification status with the client is current. Pegasus, Avetta, Cm3, Glencore Onboarding, or the client’s own portal — verified and uploaded
• Insurances current: public liability, workers’ compensation, professional indemnity — all current and lodged with the client
• Safety plan / JSA / SWMS: site-specific safety plan signed off for the work scope
• Worker register for this mobilisation: list of every worker mobilising, with their credential summary, ready for the client and ready for your records
• Equipment register for this mobilisation: list of every piece of gear mobilising, with inspection/service status
• Emergency response details: who to call, your incident escalation path, the worker emergency contacts
• Confirmation that the principal contractor has acknowledged the mobilisation: don’t assume the email was read. Verify
• Pre-mobilisation toolbox content: any specific safety messages, route info, accommodation arrangements, swap days, transport
• Audit-ready compliance report: a single export showing every worker, every credential, every expiry — the document you’d hand to a regulator if something went wrong on day one

Part 4: 24 hours out — the gate-ready confirmation

The last check before mobilisation:

• No credentials expired in the last 14 days: things move fast, run it again
• No worker withdrawn or replaced without their replacement going through this checklist
• No equipment swapped without the replacement going through the equipment checks
• Site contact confirmed for arrival — name, phone, gate location, expected time
• Documentation pack accessible offline in case the site doesn’t have reception
• Driver / operator briefed on site rules: speed, hazards, sign-on procedure, parking
• Crew briefed on first-day expectations: where to be, what to wear, what to bring
• PPE checked physically — not just confirmed on paper

What goes wrong when this checklist isn’t run

We’ve watched a lot of mobilisation failures over the years. Almost all of them fall into one of these patterns:

The pattern: late discovery. Something expired weeks ago, but nobody saw it until the gate. The crew turns up, the credential check fails, the worker is sent home. Cost: a day’s lost work, the driver’s time, fuel both ways, and a frustrated client.

The pattern: the substitute. A coordinator pulls a different worker in last-minute because the original is unavailable. The substitute doesn’t have the right site induction. Same gate failure, same cost.

The pattern: the silent equipment lapse. Worker turns up cleared, equipment turns up with an expired inspection. Sometimes the operator wasn’t told. Sometimes nobody checked. Same outcome.

The pattern: portal mismatch. Credentials are current in your system but haven’t been uploaded to the client portal. The client portal says non-compliant. Gate refuses entry.

Every one of these is avoidable. None is avoidable by being more careful — they’re avoidable by having a system that surfaces gaps automatically, in time to act on them.

How GO! Site Ready automates this checklist

The reason this checklist runs to 30+ items is that the underlying problem is structurally complex. Different sites, different requirements, different expiry cycles, multiple stakeholders, multiple portals. Running it manually for every mobilisation is what causes the failures the checklist is designed to prevent.

GO! Site Ready replaces the manual checklist with an automated one:

• Worker readiness check — pick a site and a role; the system tells you which workers are ready, which aren’t, and exactly what’s missing for the ones that aren’t
• Equipment readiness check — same logic for plant, instruments, and vehicles. Service overdue? Inspection lapsed? You’ll see it in advance, not at the gate
• Tiered alerts at 30, 14, and 7 days before any credential, induction, medical, or equipment certificate expires — routed to the person who can act on it
• Mobilisation report — generated in one click, exportable to the client or carried to the gate as your documentation pack
• Audit-ready evidence — every check, every update, every approval timestamped and defensible if a regulator asks

The Frontline Equipment Maintenance team — 140 workers across 50+ mine sites — went from frequent gate turnarounds to zero internal turnarounds in four years using exactly this pattern. The checklist runs automatically; the coordinator’s job moves from “check the spreadsheet” to “fix the gaps the system flagged.”

For the full picture of how site-readiness automation works:

• Mining compliance software — the mine-site-specific compliance layer
• Contractor compliance software — the full platform overview
• Workforce compliance — worker credentials and expiry alerts
• Equipment management — gear, service records, fleet compliance
• Contractor induction software — site-specific inductions and onboarding

Or apply for the free 14-day managed trial — we set the system up for you, migrate your records, and run it in parallel to your current process for two weeks. If it works, you stay. If it doesn’t, we export everything back.