Northern Star pleads guilty to a safety lapse that left employee with a spinal injury

Northern Star, the biggest gold miner on the ASX, has pleaded guilty in the Perth Magistrates Court to safety breaches which left a worker with spinal and leg injuries.

Northern Star chief executive Stuart Tonkin.

Gold miner Northern Star has been fined $750,000 over workplace safety breaches that left an employee with serious spinal and leg injuries.

The drill operator was hurt after a breakdown in safety protocols at Northern Star’s Carosue Dam mine northeast of Kalgoorlie. He is still recovering.

In the Perth Magistrates Court on Wednesday Northern Star, the biggest gold miner on the ASX and on the cusp of acquiring De Grey Mining for $5bn, pleaded guilty to the safety breaches.

The miner was charged with causing serious harm to a worker and exposing workers to the risk of death, injury or harm to health under WA’s Work Health and Safety Act. The drill operator was helping repair and service a jumbo drill at a workshop when he was injured in 2023.

The accident happened at a time when safety regulations required workers to completely isolate the jumbo drill’s power and apply a personal danger lock and tag. However, the safety procedures were not followed.

“The procedure also stated that supervisors should have used barricades or hazard tape to exclude workers from the energised jumbo’s area of operation,” WorkSafe WA said. “In this instance, the company did not implement the control measures set out in the procedure due to failings in supervision and direction.”

The drill operator was hit by a boom and suffered serious injuries while trying to test the equipment.

WorkSafe commissioner Sally North said the company could have avoided the incident if it had followed proper processes.

“Isolation and tagging safe work procedures are in place to protect workers and must be followed to reduce risk and prevent injury,” Ms North said.

“Management and supervisors must ensure workers handling hazardous energy and machinery are properly trained, instructed and supervised.”

Northern Star chief executive Stuart Tonkin said the safety breach was unacceptable. “The health and safety of our team are a core value to Northern Star,” he said.

Mr Tonkin said the company continued to support the injured employee, who has returned to work. “We have applied learnings from this incident to improve our controls and mitigate the risk of a similar incident in the future,” he said.

Originally published as Northern Star pleads guilty to a safety lapse that left employee with a spinal injury