The death of former BHP and Mitsubishi mine worker Allan Houston in December 2018 is also scheduled to face a court hearing in Mackay this year.ĭespite the findings that Anglo had exposed mine workers to unacceptable risks in the 2020 explosion that burned the five Moranbah North mine workers, Queensland’s Work Health and Safety Prosecutor Aaron Guilfoyle announced last month that he would not commence any prosecution over the incident. US courts have probed Peabody Energy for its handling of an underground mine fire at the North Goonyella mine in 2018. The latest fatality continues a bad five years of safety in the Queensland mining industry where the number of deaths is now in double figures. “That is creating quite a niche market for Mastermyne.” “What’s really driving this part of the business is the ownership changes that we’re continuing to see where the large ‘tier one’ operators are exiting the coal space and junior miners and investment groups are picking up these assets and don’t necessarily have the capability to operate those assets,” he told investors in February according to a Bloomberg transcript of his financial results presentation. Top quality hard coking coal from Queensland fetched $US539 per tonne on Friday night the same commodity was worth $US114 per tonne in May last year. Mr Mitchelson said Anglo was “devastated” by the latest safety incident and he thanked the medical teams that had rushed to the mine to help.Īside from the damage to Anglo’s reputation, the production halt will prevent Anglo from taking advantage of extremely high coking coal prices. These sessions will continue to be held with ongoing crews in the coming days.” “We have also made the decision to suspend operations across all our sites to commence Stop for Safety sessions today, focusing on applying critical controls and risk management, including during lifting activities and ensuring we are always maintaining chronic unease. “We have ceased mining activities at Moranbah North and will undertake a full investigation with relevant authorities, so we can understand how this incident occurred,” said Anglo’s coking coal boss Tyler Mitchelson. The halts were expected to last for a matter of hours at a time, although the Moranbah North mine will likely be halted for longer. The regulators probed Anglo’s management of methane – a flammable gas that is prevalent in Queensland coal mines – at Grosvenor after five miners were severely burned by an underground explosion in May 2020.Īnglo’s response over the weekend was to temporarily halt operations across all Queensland mines to hold safety sessions. The tragedy continues a horror run for Anglo American, which has suffered a slew of serious safety incidents at the two adjacent mines that represent the core of its Australian coking coal business Moranbah North and Grosvenor.Īn inquiry commissioned by the Queensland government declared last year that Anglo had exposed workers at the Grosvenor mine to an “unacceptable level of risk” by focusing on production capacity rather than the management of methane at the mine. It follows the death of a Mastermyne employee in Queensland’s Crinum underground coking coal mine in September. Mining services company Mastermyne has suffered its second workplace fatality in less than seven months in a tragedy that has caused yet more headaches for the accident-prone Australian division of multinational miner Anglo American.Ī Mastermyne employee died after suffering head injuries in a lifting accident at Anglo’s Moranbah North coking coal mine in Queensland’s Bowen Basin on Friday night.
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