Rio Tinto’s subsidiary Hamersley Iron and Golden Grove Operations have been fined a total of $110,500 for mining incidents, including a worker death.
Rio Tinto’s subsidiary Hamersley Iron and Golden Grove Operations have been fined a total of $110,500 for mining incidents, including a worker death.
Hamersley Iron was fined $75,000 over a fatal truck crash at the company’s Channar iron ore mine in August 2018.
The company previously pleaded guilty to causing the death of an employee in the South Hedland Magistrates Court.
The worker was driving a fully loaded truck down a 1.2km long ramp, with a gradient mostly between eight and 10 per cent, when it gained excessive speed of more than 100km/h before crashing into a windrow at the bottom of the ramp.
Acting WorkSafe mines chief inspector Christina Folley said the tragic incident should not have happened.
“Between February 2014 and August 2018, there had been a number of incidents involving excessive speed on ramps at Channar,” she said.
“There had also been excessive speed and braking incidents at other Rio Tinto operations in the area during that period.
“Hamersley Iron needed to have more control over the speed descent hazard at Channar and more effective policies in place to deal with downhill haulage.”
Channar is about 350km inland from Port Hedland and is one of three adjoining leases which form Rio Tinto’s Greater Paraburdoo operations.
A Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety statement said open pit operations usually required trucks to carry loads uphill but trucks at Channar travel downhill from elevated pits due to natural features in the area.
“Given the length and gradient of the ramps at Channar, the risk of trucks gaining excessive speed and getting out of control was well known,” it said.
Hamersley Iron and other Rio Tinto mines in the area have implemented safety measures after the incident, including additional signage, over-speed alerts via audible alarms and risk-based classification for haulage ramps.
Golden Grove Operations, then known as EMR Golden Grove, was fined $35,500 at Perth Magistrates Court today.
The company pleaded guilty to an October 2018 incident at the Perth Magistrates Court and was ordered to pay $5,000 in costs.
An integrated tool carrier and blast truck fell into a 13-metre deep hole at the Golden Grove precious metals mine southeast of Yalgoo in the state's Mid-West.
Three workers from a blast crew was working near the bomb truck before the incident while a number of charged blast holes were engulfed in the sinkhole.
While no one was found to be injured in the incident, Ms Folley said the company should not have allowed workers to operate above a previously filled void where the ground’s stability had not been verified.
“This was a near-miss that could have resulted in serious injury or loss of life,” she said.
“The workers who had been in the area shortly before the incident were lucky to escape safely.
“Voids pose a significant workplace hazard, so mine operators must develop safe working practices that do not presume any stope is tight-filled.”
Ms Folley said geotechnical hazards were well-recognised in the mining industry and mine operators must monitor and record any change in underground conditions below open cut workings.
A DMIRS statement said Golden Grove Operations failed to undertake probe drilling to confirm the site’s safety or to apply the relevant procedure to mining in that area.
“Mining operations at the incident site were discontinued and have yet to resume with further geotechnical reviews of all the stopes being conducted,” the statement said.
The Golden Grove mine was owned by EMR Capital at the time of the incident and is now operated by 29Metals, a spin-off of EMR, which listed on the ASX in July.
Minjar Gold has also been charged in relation to the incident and will appear in court at a later date.
Minjar entered into an agreement with Golden Grove and was mining ore from the sinkhole site.
