A section of roof at an underground coal mine in New South Wales has fallen, prompting an investigation from the state’s Resources Regulator.
A shearer was cutting back into the tailgate for a second shear of shift when the continuous miner worker noticed what appeared to be a roof fall adjacent to the tailgate drive.
The longwall mining supervisor was contacted, who inspected and identified a roof fall that was impeding access from the tailgate.
The area was barricaded to prevent access and no worker was injured during the fall or barricade process.
The NSW Resources Regulator attended the scene and determined a localised load change was the likely cause of the fall.
“This incident highlights that loading applied to an active tailgate roadway ground support increases immediately outbye the faceline as the face retreats and abutment loads are redistributed outbye,” the Regulator said.
“This increase in loading on the installed ground support, particularly if accompanied by the presence of a localised geological anomaly can result in a fall of ground.”
The improvement of geotechnical inputs into ground support design has significantly reduced such failures over the past decade, however strata failure remains a fundamental risk with localised geological anomalies potentially affecting the adequacy of the ground support as it was designed and installed.
Ground support designs will ideally be able to tolerate localised changes that demand more load-carrying ability from the installed ground support.
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