Rockfall at Australia gold mine kills one worker, injures another
SYDNEY - A 37-year-old man has died and another was seriously injured after rocks collapsed inside an underground gold mine in Australia's Victoria state, while 28 other workers at the site were rescued, authorities said on Thursday.
Emergency crews were called to the Ballarat Gold Mine in Mount Clear, about 100 km west of Melbourne, on Wednesday evening after reports of a rockfall. The incident happened about 3 km from the underground mine's entry, Victoria police said in a statement.
Paramedics were able to rescue one miner, who was treated for lower body injuries and airlifted to hospital in a serious condition. The miners who took refuge in a safety pod were winched to safety, police said.
A workers' union said the death and serious injury of the workers could have been avoided because they were performing a task called "airleg mining" - a manual handheld type of drilling into rocks - on unsupported ground when it collapsed.
"The information that we're getting back was that this was a quick, cheap and easy way to chase gold," Ronnie Hayden, Australian Workers Union's Victoria secretary, told reporters.
Hayden said the union members at the mine had been raising concerns "about this style of mining and it seems to have fallen on deaf ears."
Victory Minerals, which owns the Ballarat Gold Mine, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The site has been closed down for police and Victoria's workplace safety regulator to conduct their investigations, authorities said.
Federal Resources Minister Madeleine King told ABC Radio that all safety processes at the mine will be checked thoroughly, adding it was "too early to really go into any speculation" about the accident.
In 2007, 27 miners were trapped underground at the same mine for several hours before being rescued, according to reports in Australian media.
Comments
Research Reports
Projects
Latest Multimedia
Latest News
Showroom
FlameBlock is a proudly South African company that engineers, manufactures and supplies fire intumescent and retardant products to the fire...
VISIT SHOWROOM
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation
