A serious work accident involving light vehicles at the Saraji coal mine in Dysart has resulted in the death of a 27-year-old worker.
The coal miner died on Monday afternoon at the central Queensland mine site, which is located 600 kilometres south of Townsville.
Resources Safety and Health Queensland (RSHQ) are currently investigating the incident to discover the exact events that led to this outcome.
Two men were working in the fuel-bay area of the open-cut mine around midday when an interaction between two vehicles left a 27-year-old coal mine worker with significant crush injuries.
The coal mine worker was taken to hospital but later died from his injuries.
RSHQ CEO Rob Djukic said the death will impact the entire Queensland mining community.
“We’d like to offer our sincere condolences to the family of the victim, his friends and his co-workers,” said Mr Djukic.
“As soon as we were notified of the incident, we launched an investigation sending multiple investigators and inspectors from our Serious Incident Investigation Unit and Coal Inspectorate to the site.
“We’re also working closely with BMA to find out what went wrong and prevent this from happening again.”
Mining and Energy Union (MEU) Queensland President Mitch Hughes said: “Union safety inspectors are at the site to conduct a thorough investigation, we will ensure no stone is left unturned in understanding what has occurred and preventing future fatalities and injuries.”
The major Bowen Basin open cut mine is Australia’s fourth biggest and the world’s tenth biggest coal mine by recoverable coal reserves.
The Saraji coal mine has been producing up to ten million tonnes per annum of high-quality metallurgical coal for export markets since 1974.
It has also been owned and operated by BHP Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA) — a joint venture between BHP Billiton (50 per cent) and Mitsubishi (50 per cent) — since 2001.
Saraji is one of the of the seven coal mines operated by BMA in the Bowen Basin.
As this investigation is ongoing, further information about the incident will be limited.
