An AHP-Based Framework for Comparative Assessment of Safety-Control Conditions in Open-Pit Quarries

Safety-control conditions in open-pit quarrying are shaped by interactions among mine-system configuration and the linked sequences of drilling, blasting, excavation/loading, and haulage operations. Here, we develop a process-informed comparative decision-support framework for assessing safety-control conditions in construction-stone quarries. Twenty technical, human, organizational, and environmental criteria were assessed using technical reports, occupational safety and health (OSH) documentation, field observations, and structured expert judgment. Criterion priorities were computed using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), which confirmed the internal consistency of the aggregated expert-judgment matrix (CR = 0.032). Mining system configuration and control (C1) and hazard identification/risk assessment (C11) criteria received the highest priorities (0.146 each), followed by blasting control (C3; 0.124). The AHP priority structure was mapped to four study-specific ordinal priority bands, with assigned functional coefficients of 4, 3, 2, and 1, respectively, to determine the composite safety index: Ia = 4T1 + 3T2 + 2T3 + T4. When applied to 16 construction-stone quarries operating in Binh Duong Province, Vietnam, Ia ranged from 84 to 207, corresponding to normalized safety-control condition scores of 21.7–90.0%. Among the process-mapped criteria, blasting control (C3) received the highest individual AHP priority. Sensitivity analysis showed that quarry rankings remained internally stable under the tested ±10% and ±20% one-at-a-time perturbations of the functional coefficients, with a minimum Spearman correlation of 0.9985. The framework is intended for comparative engineering decision support under the adopted assessment protocol and does not estimate accident probability, frequency, severity, or future safety outcomes.