Regulators have sent a strong warning to mine company executives after two workers were injured at the same Goldfields mine in two separate mining incidents this past week.
A mine worker is believed to have been seriously injured last week at St Ives Gold Mine near Kambalda, during a road train accident. A maintenance worker also suffered broken bones and internal injuries at the same mine.
Four Western Australian DMP safety inspectors are managing the incidents – quarantining both scenes and commencing full investigations.
“We have commenced thorough investigations into these incidents, and we are interviewing witnesses and inspecting both scenes,” DMP Resources Safety Executive Director Simon Ridge said. “As a regulator, it is completely concerning and disheartening that these incidents have occurred. Every worker should expect to return home to their family and friends at the end of their swings or shifts.”
“I strongly urge all managers to ensure mining workers aren’t placed in harm’s way, and I urge mining workers to remain careful and vigilant at all times.”
In 2012, Western Australia’s resources sector achieved its first fatality-free year since records began in 1896, while there haven’t been any deaths in the Goldfields for the past 34 months.
WA’s lost time injury frequency rate (per million hours worked) has decreased by 50 per cent in the past decade.
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