A person has died and one other is combating for his life in hospital after a mine collapse in Victoria’s Goldfields area.
Thirty folks had been working about 3km from the doorway of the Ballarat Gold Mine at Mount Clear when the incident occurred about 4.50pm on Wednesday.
Whereas 28 miners made it to a “security pod” contained in the mine and had been finally dropped at the floor unhurt, two employees had been pinned by fallen rocks about 500 metres underground.
One of many males, a 21-year-old from Ballarat, was freed on Wednesday night time and flown to the Alfred hospital in Melbourne, the place he remained in a vital situation on Thursday.
The opposite man, a 37-year-old from Bruthen within the state’s East Gippsland area, died.
Performing Insp Lisa MacDougall confirmed police had recovered his physique at 5.20am on Thursday and would put together a report for the coroner.
WorkSafe confirmed it might be investigating the dying.
“It will likely be a posh, detailed investigation,” WorkSafe’s director of well being and security, Dr Narelle Beer, stated on Thursday.
“We’ll take a while, and we’re very eager to grasp how we will make sure that a tragedy like this by no means happens once more.”
In response to the Australian Staff Union Victorian department secretary, Ronnie Hayden, the person’s dying “ought to have been prevented”.
Hayden advised reporters the employees had been performing a guide kind of mining referred to as “air-legging” on “unsupported floor” on the time of the accident.
The strategy entails the usage of a handheld drill operated by two miners. He stated the bottom gave method, trapping each miners and killing one.
“This type of air-legging shouldn’t be used to do any such work. This type of air-legging needs to be used, if it’s ever used in any respect, to research the bottom,” he stated.
Hayden stated issues had been raised about the usage of air-legging on the mine for a while.
He stated it was his expectation Victoria’s office manslaughter legal guidelines would “take impact”. In response to Hayden, for the reason that legal guidelines had been launched in 2020, 169 Victorians had been killed on the job however there had solely been one prosecution of office manslaughter.
Ben Wright, the supervisor of the earth assets part of WorkSafe, stated air-legging was “much less frequent than mechanised mining” and shouldn’t happen on unsupported floor.
“All mining does inherently carry a threat and it’s the mine operator’s obligation to make sure these dangers are managed appropriately,” he stated.
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“With out commenting particularly about this incident, there’s a common place in the complete mining sector that [the] floor ought to at all times be supported.”
Mine proprietor Victory Minerals was contacted for remark.
In a press release, it confirmed the dying of “one in all our personal” within the “tragic accident”.
“Our deepest sympathies and ideas are together with his household and all our folks proper now,” a spokesperson stated. “Our absolute precedence is supporting the wellbeing of our staff members and their households and family members, as all of us come to phrases with this tragic information.”
Victory Minerals purchased the mine community, together with the mill and tools, from Lihir Gold in March 2010.
In November 2007, three years previous to that sale, 27 miners had been trapped when a cave-in occurred whereas they had been working a kilometre underground.
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, stated her ideas had been with the person’s household, in addition to the opposite miners concerned within the accident.
“This is able to have been a terrifying ordeal for these miners and positively too our ideas needs to be with them as properly,” she advised reporters on Thursday.
The federal member for Ballarat, Catherine King, additionally prolonged her condolences to the household of the miner who died, saying she was “deeply saddened”.
Ballarat’s mayor, Des Hudson, stated information of the person’s dying was “devastating” for the tight-knit group, which has additionally grappled with the alleged homicide of native girl Samantha Murphy.
“Our hearts exit to the household of that miner who by no means got here residence from work but in addition to the opposite miner who’s at the moment within the Alfred hospital with very vital accidents and has a battle in entrance of him,” Hudson advised Channel Seven’s Dawn.