SafeWork South Australia (SA) has reported an explosive incident from an underground mine in South Australia.
According to the safety alert, underground worker safety was put at risk through the unintentional electronic initiation of two development headings.
The headings were initiative during the firing of a decline heading that was planned to be independently fired and resulted in the explosion.
SafeWork SA has reminded mine operations to maintain safe work systems when handling explosives.
It has encouraged mine operators to crack down on their practices, including comprehensive risk assessments to be conducted for the use of explosives.
Other areas listed by SafeWork SA encourage firing systems to be designed, installed and maintained by a “competent person”.
This means that the personnel associated with firing systems should be trained and assessed as competent with the mine’s initiation system.
Main firing systems and independent firing systems should also be segregated to avoid explosions.
The investigation into the explosion remains ongoing, with SafeWork sharing no further details.