By Riley Walter and Simon Johanson
The cache of stolen explosives left in a dumped caravan in Sydney’s north-west alongside the name of a Sydney synagogue was so powerful it could have caused a 40-metre blast radius.
So powerful are the Powergel explosives, believed to have been stolen from a mine site, that Premier Chris Minns described their detonation as a potential “mass-casualty event”.
Powergel explosives are widely used by the mining industry for blasting and tunnelling.
“This is certainly an escalation of that [recent attacks in Sydney] with the use of explosives that have the potential to cause a great deal of damage,” NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Dave Hudson said on Wednesday.
Powergel products are a “detonator-sensitive emulsion explosive”, according to product information on the website of mining explosives manufacturer Orica. Orica, which stopped manufacturing its Powergel products in about 2009, is not accused of any wrongdoing, nor is this masthead suggesting any involvement by the company in the potential attack.
Orica said it did not believe its products were found in the caravan and that the company would work with authorities to assist the investigation.
While it is unknown which of the many available Powergel products was found inside the van, Orica variously described its explosives as “high strength” and “designed to deliver high energy”.
Dozens of Powergel-branded products are listed by SafeWork NSW as authorised explosives. The explosive typically has a putty-like consistency and is packaged in film.
Manufacturers package each explosive with a unique serial number, which is logged and passed on to purchasers, to allow them to trace the explosives’ provenance.
Powergel products have long been used by the mining industry, particularly in coal mines, for blasting, tunnelling and shaft-sinking.
Orica’s Powergel P501 product could “be used for solid blasting in all underground coal mines”, according to the company, while the Powergel 901 product was the “preferred explosive for use in tunnelling, shaft-sinking and other extreme blasting environments”.
Addressing the media on Wednesday evening, Hudson said the explosives were believed to have been stolen from a mine site. It is unclear which mine they were stolen from, when they were stolen or the quantity found in the caravan.
Police are speaking with manufacturers to investigate where the explosives came from, but no incidents have yet been reported to NSW Resources, the regulator tasked with investigating breaches.
“We are liaising with the manufacturers of the explosives. They are almost exclusively used in the mining industry, and we are still conducting those inquiries, obviously now more publicly than we were yesterday,” Hudson said on Thursday morning.
On Thursday morning, Police Commissioner Karen Webb said a detonator had not been found with the explosives.
NSW mines have in place strict regulations, registers and compliances towards their explosives, typically used in open-cut mines. Powergel explosives are among the most highly regulated.
“There are very strict regulatory requirements across each jurisdiction that include a chain of custody for explosives from their manufacture through to end use. At each phase, there were checks and balances,” Australasian Explosives Industry Safety Group chief executive Richard Bilman said.
With Kayla Olaya
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