Two miners at SIMEC Mining’s Tahmoor coal mine near Wollongong in New South Wales were stranded in a lift more than 150 metres down the shaft on Wednesday, September 5.
The miners were trapped for nine hours when the underground mine elevator broke down.
The 2 million tonnes a year (Mt/y) mine employs about 300 people and was acquired from Glencore in January this year.
SIMEC Mining said in a statement, “The employees reached the surface safe and well close to midnight, passing medical checks before being reunited with their families.”
SBS reported that four specialist rescue squads and Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) crews had lowered a small cage into the shaft to inspect the main elevator and rescue the trapped men.
SIMEC Mining said that it has begun investigating the cause of the incident and identifying necessary improvements to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
SIMEC Mining is part of Sanjeev Gupta’s larger GFG Alliance.