Emergency response, News, Underground operations

Fire extinguishing underway at Grosvenor

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Anglo American has released drone footage of works being undertaken to snuff out a fire that has been burning at its Grosvenor coal mine in Queensland for nearly two weeks.

All workers were immediately evacuated when the underground fire first broke out on June 30.

The footage shows a dozer approaching a ventilation shaft on site at Grosvenor and pushing dirt into the shaft in an effort to temporarily seal the mine.

“An operator controls the dozer remotely using hand-held controls,” Anglo said in a post to X (formerly known as Twitter).

“It first needs to remove the shaft housing above ground level so it can gain access to the shaft into the underground area to plug.

“Dirt is pushed into the six-metre diameter shaft which was successfully sealed in the early hours of Wednesday morning.”

The dozer is on loan from Anglo’s Dawson mine in Kianga, Queensland.

Sealing off all entrances to the mine will starve the coal fire of oxygen and extinguish the flames, but it’s a delicate process that could turn explosive if rushed.

With an extensive network of tunnels extending half a kilometre underground, closing the shafts quickly could risk blowing air back on the fire and cause an explosion.

The latest footage shows Anglo is taking all necessary precautions to ensure the fire is smothered safely, with as little risk to emergency responders as possible.

Anglo announced earlier this week it will work with unions and peak industry bodies to redeploy as many workers as possible while Grosvenor is recovered.

This will include potential internal redeployment opportunities available at other Anglo American operations in Queensland, including the Dawson mine open-cut operations, the Capcoal Complex, including Aquila, as well as the Brisbane corporate office.

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