The global market for mining risks has softened for the fifth year in a row, but its pace has slowed in the past six months, according to a Marsh report.

One driver of softening rates is declining sums insured, particularly business interruption values, as commodity prices fall.

New capacity continues to enter the market, mainly through Lloyd’s, and these entrants are “typically participating in relatively small limit layers, which drives competition in the lower and primary layered programs”.

A relatively benign loss experience in the sector leads Marsh to predict rates will continue declining for the rest of this year.

Ore residue – or tailings – dam exposures remain a focus for underwriters, with more technical insurers requesting additional risk and operational information at renewal time.

This follows notable tailings dam failures in Canada, Mexico and Brazil in recent years.

However, the focus on dam failures is generally not resulting in coverage restriction, and premiums remain stable.

The casualty marketplace continues to stabilise, with more moderate rate declines in international markets and increases for some risks in certain regions, namely the US, Marsh says.

US mining rates are stable and global risk management accounts recorded flat to reduced rates through most of last year, and slightly reduced rates in the beginning of this year.

Even in the soft market, rate increases of up to 5% are not unusual for loss-free accounts when exposures are materially down year on year.