BHP’s Mt Arthur coal mine near Muswellbrook in the Upper Hunter region of New South Wales was near the epicentre of a magnitude-4.2 earthquake that struck at 12:12pm this afternoon.
According to the ABC, no injuries or damage have been reported at the mine.
“No one was injured following an earthquake on Tuesday 12 November,” a BHP spokesperson said, according to the Guardian.
“Operations have temporarily paused as we conduct a site wide inspection.”
Mt Arthur employs around 2000 people, who predominantly live in the region. Historically, the site produced coal for domestic and international customers in the energy sector.
GeoScience Australia senior seismologist Dr Hadi Ghasemi told the ABC there was ongoing activity in the region, labelling it an “earthquake swarm”.
“In earthquake swarms, you have a series of the earthquakes with similar size magnitudes – it’s not like an aftershock sequence,” he said.
“In this region, since the magnitude-4.7 in August, we’ve recorded over 50 earthquakes, four of them with magnitudes larger than 4, including the recent one.”
In early September, a magnitude-4.5 earthquake paused operations at Mt Arthur, but the mine quickly returned to production with no damage or injuries.
Ghasemi said more quakes may be on the way for the miner.
“All of the previous magnitude-4 ones in this region, they were followed by smaller aftershocks,” he said.
“But then again, with the swarm activity this kind of activity may continue for months or even years to come.”
The Bureau of Meteorology has ruled out the threat of an ensuing tsunami.
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