A court decision on a serious underground incident has highlighted the importance of ensuring safety procedures are not only in place but supported by effective controls and oversight on mine sites.
On May 13, the Industrial Court of New South Wales convicted Newcrest Mining, the previous operator of the Cadia East underground mine near Orange, after a worker suffered an amputation of his left arm below the elbow when it became entangled in the rotating drill steel of a jumbo drill rig on June 19.
Newcrest pleaded guilty to contravening section 32 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 by failing to ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers engaged by it.
The court imposed a $1 million fine, reduced by $250,000 for the company’s guilty plea.
In delivering her sentence, Judge Paingakulam said the offence fell within the high range of objective seriousness, noting the risks associated with workers accessing areas forward of the jacks on jumbo drills were well known.
The court found Newcrest failed to install presence sensing safeguarding or an automatic boom isolation system on jumbo drills, and did not implement or enforce a documented safe work procedure for tasks requiring workers to access these areas.
It also failed to provide adequate information, instruction, training and competency assessment for workers performing the role of Nipper Offsiders.
Additional shortcomings included the absence of an electronic data logging system to monitor use of boom immobiliser systems on jumbos, and a lack of requirements for periodic auditing of dash camera footage to monitor worker compliance with the safe system of work.
Judge Paingakulam observed that working forward of the jacks with the system engaged had become a well-established practice.
“There can be little benefit to Newcrest in having safety systems and procedures in place when they were able to be and in fact were routinely ignored by workers,” she said.
The operator of the jumbo drill rig has also pleaded guilty to breaching section 32 of the Act by failing to take reasonable care not to adversely affect the health and safety of a co-worker. Judgment in that matter has been reserved.
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