A spate of rope and sling issues has drawn the attention of the New South Wales Resources Regulator, which is calling for workers remove themselves from the line of fire.
While installing a conveyor belt at a NSW underground coal mine, workers were pulling a belt winch rope over a belt structure.
The rope, with a steel eyelet attached, was wound around the handrail of a man basket on an loader to assist with pulling.
A knot formed in the winch rope and got caught in the V-shaped return frame, causing high tension on the rope.
The rope subsequently uncoiled at speed from the basket handrail and travelled past the workers in the basket and the loader operator.
The rope recoiled about 50m past the loader before it stopped. The steel eyelet flew past the heads of the workers, missing them by about 300mm.
A separate incident saw workers at an open cut coal mine in NSW involved another close call.
The workers were removing track pins from an excavator welded a nut to a pin, and used a sling attached to a forklift to try to pull out the pin.
The weld failed and the nut and steel shackle on the sling flew through the front window of the forklift and out the back window, hitting the operator.
“This and other recent incidents of rope and sling failures while under tension are the subject of investigation and further information will be published later,” the NSW Resources Regulator said.
“Mine operators are reminded of the need to undertake proper risk analysis before undertaking pulling tasks.
“Workers should not be in the line of fire in the event of rope or sling failures.”
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