Underground mining operations are back on track at Doray Minerals Limited’s Deflector Gold Copper Mine in Western Australia after an incident involving a remotely controlled underground loader led to a fire on Wednesday, 8 August.
Although no one was injured in the incident, Doray immediately suspended underground mining. At the time of the fire, 11 underground workers were relocated to their closest emergency refuge chamber before being escorted out of the mine by the site’s emergency response team.
Doray’s Managing Director Leigh Junk commented that a standard re-entry of the mine was undertaken yesterday to assess the area affected by the fire and to ensure that no further hazards existed. The re-entry confirmed that there were no impediments to a safe resumption of mining activities.
“This is a very pleasing recovery following Wednesday’s fire incident,” he said, “our first priority will always be the safety of our people. The decision to resume mining was only taken because the workplace has been confirmed safe.”
Mr Junk also commented that despite Wednesday’s incident, the safe and orderly resolution that was brought about, “demonstrates the high quality of Deflector’s emergency response capabilities and Doray’s entrenched safety culture”.
The company has assured that the two-day interruption to underground mining would not affect Deflector’s production guidance as stockpiled ore continued to be processed during the two-day investigation period.
Doray will continue their investigation into the cause of the fire into the future.
