Five new Grosvenor mine workers test positive for Covid-19

Five new Covid-19 cases have been confirmed at a Moranbah mine with the company making the call to reduce employees onsite to only essential and statutory workers.

Five Moranbah mine workers have now tested positive to Covid-19 bringing the total number of active cases at the Central Queensland mine site to six.

The cases are in the wake of an interstate worker who tested positive at Anglo American’s Grosvenor mine last week.

An Anglo American spokesman said all known close contacts were isolating and the company was communicating with the Grosvenor workforce about potential and casual low risk contacts.

The spokesman said the company was working to reduce the spread of Covid-19 and mask wearing and social distancing mandates had been in place at the site since Thursday.

Anglo American’s Grosvenor Coal Mine Entry. Photo: Daryl Wright

“Grosvenor Mine has been reduced to only personnel required to cover statutory and essential services until Wednesday 29th December to enable us to continue to work through the situation,” the spokesman said.

It is understood other employees will return at the earliest on Thursday December 30.

The spokesman said the company had been “proactively taking contact tracing steps in line with Queensland Government guidelines with the support of our medical service provider and in liaison with Queensland Health.”

“We are continuing to closely support our colleagues who have been impacted,” he said.

The interstate worker who initially contracted the virus last week had received a negative rapid antigen test at Anglo’s Brisbane airport facility before boarding a flight to Moranbah on Tuesday afternoon.

“When our colleague became aware he may have been in contact with Covid-19, he immediately undertook a PCR test and isolated while waiting for the results, and therefore the time on site and in the community was limited,” an Anglo American spokesman said on December 24.

It is understood the man was asymptomatic at the time of infection.

The spokesman said the company had begun Rapid Antigen Testing at Brisbane airport on Monday December 20.

The interstate worker who initially contracted the virus last week had received a negative rapid antigen test at Anglo’s Brisbane airport facility before boarding a flight to Moranbah on Tuesday afternoon.

“Prior to this case we communicated to our workforce a range of further measures to apply across our six mine sites, offices and camps to help to reduce the spread of Covid-19 at our sites and communities,” he said.

“We have been proactively taking contact tracing steps in line with Queensland Government guidelines with the support of our medical service provider and in liaison with Queensland Health. “

These measures include social distancing, and the use of masks in vehicles and buses and where social distancing cannot be achieved.

The news comes as the Mackay Isaac and Whitsunday region hit a total of 29 active Covid-19 cases on Christmas Day, including six Mackay stores listed on Queensland Health’s exposure list.