Bigger penalties for safety breaches

Westgold Resources has revealed it is being prosecuted over a mine site fatality after Byrnecut, Northern Star Resources and Billabong Gold were fined more than $2 million.

Westgold told the ASX late last month its subsidiary, Big Bell Gold Operations, has received a prosecution notice from the Department of Energy Mines Industry Regulation and Safety.

It relates to a workplace fatality at the Big Bell mine near Cue in the northern Goldfields in December 2020.

Managing director Wayne Bramwell said the tragedy had affected everyone in the business.

“Since this time our safety culture has been transformed and this has been key to our operational turnaround,” Mr Bramwell said in a statement.

The Westgold announcement came shortly after several mining companies and contractors were hit with big fines over workplace deaths.

Contractor Byrnecut Australia has been fined $850,000 plus costs of $4,241 over the death of one of its employees at the Whirling Dervish underground goldmine in July 2020.

Mine owner Northern Star was fined $700,000 plus costs of $4,241 for engaging a contractor (Byrnecut) that failed to provide a safe working environment, resulting in the death of a worker. (Byrnecut had been engaged at the time by Saracen Gold Mines, which merged with Northern Star in 2021.)

Mine supervisor Arsen Korzhov was fined $20,000 plus costs of $4,241.

All parties pleaded guilty in the Perth Magistrates Court last month.

The death occurred when a worker drove an underground loader over the edge of an open void, falling around 25 metres.

On the day of the incident, Mr Korzhov removed a barricade and warning signs from the stope shortly before the worker started building the bund.

Mr Korzhov then left the area, which meant the stope was unguarded.

WorkSafe Chief Inspector of Mines Martin Ralph said several factors contributed to the fatal incident.

“Northern Star and Byrnecut failed to complete the required Job Hazard Analysis and neither company took steps to instigate a proper risk assessment for the task,” he said.

“Mine operators must erect a physical barrier before an open stope is created or changed by firing explosives, and it must be maintained to prevent access.

“In this instance, there were no physical barriers to prevent the loader entering the stope, nor were there effective wall markings to help the driver judge the distance to the open edge.

“These factors are especially important as a loader’s configuration can limit the driver’s forward visibility.”

In a separate matter that also concluded last month, Billabong Gold has been fined $550,000 plus costs of $4,670.

Billabong was prosecuted after two workers were struck by tooling that ejected under pressure from a hydraulic ram at the company’s Plutonic goldmine in 2020.

One worker suffered serious facial fractures and the other received a laceration to his forehead.

The company – which was acquired last year by Catalyst Metals – pleaded guilty in the Carnarvon Magistrates Court to being an employer that caused serious harm to an employee.

Acting WorkSafe Commissioner Sally North said the men were lucky as the incident could have been fatal.

“One of the workers had not completed any training or verification of competency in hydraulic rams while working at the company,” she said.

“The company’s safe work procedure for bucket changes was also deficient.

“The procedure did not specify the equipment and tools required for the task, the associated hazards or a process for installing the pins.

“Unfortunately, at least one of the workers thought the safe work procedure allowed the task to be completed ‘any way you want’.”

Sandfire Resources also recently received a big fine over a workplace safety breach in 2020.

The ASX company was fined $551,250 and ordered to pay $4,670 in costs after a rock fall pinned a worker to an elevated basket he was working in at the company’s DeGrussa underground mine.

Sandfire pleaded guilty in the Perth Magistrates Court in November to failing to take appropriate measures to ensure workers at the mine were not exposed to hazards.

WorkSafe Chief Inspector of Mines Christina Folley said underground mines required detailed analysis of rock structures and planning to ensure persons working underground were safe.