Chemicals and mining case study

Process safety continuity and high consequence resilience for a multinational industrial operator

Chemical production sites and mining operations represent some of the highest consequence environments in global industry. Disruption impacts not only business performance, but also worker safety, environmental integrity, regulatory compliance, and supply continuity for essential industrial materials.

Resilience Guard GmbH was engaged by a major multinational operator in the chemicals and heavy industry sector, with complex production and extraction activities across Europe and international markets.

The organisation required strengthened resilience capability focused on process safety continuity, crisis escalation under high consequence events, and operational governance aligned with ISO 22301 principles and essential sector resilience expectations under frameworks such as NIS2.

This engagement addressed the continuity of hazardous operations where controlled stability is critical under disruption conditions.

Business context: Heavy industry resilience is safety critical resilience
Chemical and mining organisations face disruption pressures including:

• process safety exposure during uncontrolled operational interruption
• dependency on complex OT environments and industrial control systems
• environmental escalation risk under disruption events
• regulatory scrutiny linked to high consequence industrial operations
• supply chain dependency for essential chemical and industrial materials
• rising essential sector resilience expectations under NIS2 contextual obligations

In heavy industry, disruption cannot be managed through rapid restart alone. Recovery must follow controlled safety sequencing, governed by strict operational integrity requirements.

Executive leadership required assurance that operations could remain stable under scenarios such as:

• cyber disruption impacting industrial control environments
• unplanned shutdown requiring controlled restart governance
• loss of critical utilities affecting hazardous processes
• supply interruption affecting production stability
• crisis events requiring regulator, environmental, and stakeholder escalation

The core question was:
How can hazardous industrial operations maintain controlled continuity and crisis readiness under high impact disruption, ensuring safety, compliance, and operational stability?

The situation: Continuity planning not fully integrated with process safety governance
The operator maintained complex industrial sites with varying maturity.

Key challenges identified included:

• inconsistent recovery objectives between facilities
• limited integration between business continuity governance and process safety controls
• OT disruption exposure not formally embedded into industrial resilience strategy
• absence of unified crisis escalation models for environmental and safety events
• supplier and infrastructure dependency risk affecting stability of hazardous operations

The organisation required resilience built around industrial safety and controlled recovery, not generic continuity documentation.

Resilience Guard delivery focus: Resilience built around controlled operational integrity
Resilience Guard structured the engagement around hazardous industry continuity outcomes, ensuring resilience capability protected both operational stability and high consequence safety requirements.
The work was delivered through four heavy industry specific resilience pillars.

1. Safety critical operational prioritisation and controlled continuity thresholds
Resilience Guard worked with leadership to identify which industrial functions must remain stable under disruption.

Focus areas included:

• process safety critical operations requiring continuous control
• hazardous material containment and monitoring functions
• extraction continuity priorities linked to infrastructure stability
• emergency response capability across industrial sites
• controlled shutdown and restart sequencing governance

Outputs included:

• tiered safety critical function classification
• definition of maximum tolerable disruption thresholds for hazardous processes
• executive visibility into stability priorities under disruption

This ensured continuity planning was aligned first with safety, then with recovery speed.

2. Business impact analysis aligned with ISO 22301 for hazardous operations
A structured ISO 22301 aligned BIA was conducted across critical industrial activities.

The analysis defined:

• recovery time objectives for essential operational stability functions
• recovery point objectives for monitoring and control environments
• minimum staffing and engineering requirements during disruption
• disruption tolerance thresholds linked to environmental and safety exposure

This created measurable continuity governance suitable for audit and regulator oversight.

3. OT disruption preparedness for industrial control continuity
Hazardous industry resilience increasingly depends on OT integrity.

Resilience Guard strengthened preparedness for scenarios including:

• ransomware disruption affecting operational control environments
• compromise of industrial monitoring systems
• loss of automated safety controls requiring manual stability governance
• cascading disruption between IT systems and process integrity

Key outcomes included:

• OT disruption treated as a controlled continuity event, not only a cyber incident
• recovery governance integrating engineering, safety, and crisis leadership
• improved ability to restore safe process control under disruption conditions

This aligned resilience capability with essential sector expectations under NIS2 contextual obligations.

4. Crisis escalation and environmental governance for high consequence events
Heavy industry crisis management must function under strict regulatory and societal scrutiny.

Resilience Guard strengthened crisis governance through:

• executive escalation thresholds linked to safety and environmental impact
• unified crisis command structures across industrial regions
• regulator and stakeholder communication governance
• exercising programmes testing controlled continuity under high consequence disruption

This ensured leadership capability was operational and auditable under real incident pressure.

Quantified outcomes delivered
The engagement produced measurable improvements across safety continuity, controlled recovery governance, and resilience maturity.

Recovery time objective improvement under controlled safety constraints

Across priority operational stability functions, the operator achieved:

• 25 to 40 percent reduction in recovery time objectives
• defined restart sequencing ensuring hazardous process integrity is stabilised first
• improved controlled recovery capability during disruption simulation exercises

OT resilience uplift for industrial stability

Following integration of OT recovery governance:

• reduced exposure to cyber enabled process disruption
• improved coordination between engineering, safety, and cyber response teams
• enhanced ability to restore operational control integrity safely

Resilience maturity uplift across hazardous sites
A structured maturity scoring model was applied across facilities.

Initial maturity variance:

• Level 2 developing in decentralized operations
• Level 4 managed in mature flagship industrial sites

Post engagement baseline:

• Level 4 maturity achieved across all critical safety continuity domains
• roadmap established toward Level 5 optimised industrial resilience assurance

Regulatory and stakeholder assurance enhancement

The operator strengthened resilience evidence supporting:

• ISO 22301 aligned continuity governance
• essential industry resilience expectations
• controlled crisis escalation and environmental accountability
• executive level oversight of safety critical continuity capability

Leadership reported significantly improved confidence in operational stability under high consequence disruption.

Explore related sector resilience case studies
Resilience Guard supports multinational organisations across critical sectors including:

• Energy and terminal infrastructure resilience
→ Explore the energy case study

• Telecommunications connectivity disruption preparedness
→ Explore the telecommunications case study

• Transportation and aviation mobility continuity programmes
→ Explore the transportation case study

• Pharmaceutical supply chain resilience governance
→ Explore the pharma case study

• Technology distribution ecosystem continuity assurance
→ Explore the technology case study

• Insurance operational resilience and catastrophe continuity
→ Explore the insurance case study

• Manufacturing plant continuity and OT resilience governance
→ Explore the manufacturing case study

• Public authority citizen service continuity and crisis governance
→ Explore the public sector case study

• Data center uptime resilience and cyber physical continuity
→ Explore the data centers case study

Frequently asked questions: Chemicals and mining resilience

How does ISO 22301 apply to hazardous industrial operations?
ISO 22301 provides the governance framework for business continuity. In chemicals and mining it ensures safety critical processes, controlled recovery sequencing, and continuity governance are measurable, auditable, and aligned with regulator expectations.

Why is OT resilience essential in chemicals and mining?
Industrial operations depend on control systems for safety and stability. OT disruption can immediately escalate into hazardous conditions, requiring integrated recovery governance across engineering and crisis leadership.

What measurable outcomes can heavy industry resilience programmes deliver?
High maturity programmes typically achieve:
• 25 to 45 percent faster controlled recovery capability
• stronger crisis escalation clarity under safety critical disruption
• improved regulatory and stakeholder confidence
• enhanced resilience maturity across hazardous industrial sites

Book your resilience consultation
Resilience Guard GmbH supports chemicals, mining, and heavy industry operators across Switzerland, Europe, and international markets with award winning expertise in:
• ISO 22301 aligned business continuity
• Process safety continuity and controlled recovery governance
• OT resilience and cyber physical disruption preparedness
• Crisis command capability under high consequence industrial events
→ Book Your Resilience Consultation