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Safety regulators have approved the initial re-entry steps at Anglo American’s Grosvenor Mine almost a year after an underground explosion seriously injured five coal miners.
Resources Safety and Health Queensland began inspections at Grosvenor’s underground mine this week as Anglo started its re-entry process onsite.
Anglo American confirmed re-entry today.
It is just weeks shy of the 12-month anniversary of the May 6 explosion at the longwall panel.
RSHQ, in a statement, said the staged re-entry of the mine was scheduled to start on Thursday and followed works by Anglo to seal the longwall panel where the explosion occurred.
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Subscriber only A senior mine inspector has told an inquiry that it was considered acceptable to let the Grosvenor mine continue operating after a spate of near-misses because a plan was in place to address them. The comment was made during Wednesday s hearing as part of the Queensland Coal Mining Board of Inquiry, which is exploring issues around Grosvenor mine, including the mine blast and other methane exceedances. Resources Safety and Health Queensland regional mines inspector Stephen Smith was grilled about the inspectorate s response to 27 high potential incidents that occurred between July 1 2019 and May 5 2020 at Grosvenor mine. Just a day after a HPI was recorded on May 5 2020, five men were horrifically burned during an underground fire at the mine.Â
Anglo metallurgical coal business chief executive Tyler Mitchelson said the mining giant had explored every aspect of risk management in its underground mines, as well as automation and remote operation.
“As the largest underground metallurgical coal miner in Australia, we will continue to leverage our scale to find new ways of addressing safety risks, drawing on international best practice and technology development, to ensure our systems and processes extend beyond current industry best-practice,” Mr Mitchelson said.
“We have proactively responded to learnings from the Grosvenor incident and the board of inquiry and already have a significant body of work underway across our operations.