Owners of the Ballarat Gold Mine have been accused of contravening Victoria’s top workplace safety law by failing to keep updated safety plans and by appointing people to senior underground mining roles without the required qualifications.

Victorian regulators have given the Singaporean-controlled mine until October 15 to fix the breaches, adding to doubts over the financial health of the mine after tens of millions of dollars were lent to doubtful debtors offshore in the past decade.