Inquiry: methane problems plague second Anglo American coal mine

An Anglo American underground coal mine in Queensland was allowed to keep operating, despite its methane drainage system being ‘at capacity and struggling’.

Anglo American’s Grosvenor Mine. Picture: Tara Miko

An Anglo American underground coalmine in Queensland was allowed by the government’s mines inspectorate to keep operating, despite managers reporting its methane drainage system was “at capacity and struggling”.

A board of inquiry is investi­gating the May 6 methane explosion at Anglo American’s Grosvenor mine in central Queensland, which nearly killed five men, as well as dangerously high methane recordings at other mines, including Anglo’s Grasstree.

The inquiry heard Grasstree recorded eight high-methane events, known as high potential incidents, between February 22 and April 11, including three on March 20, and 11 in total since July 1 last year.

Government mines inspector Stephen Smith said the inspectorate received a report from Grasstree’s underground mines man­ager Kelvin Schielfelbein, noting Grasstree had a “methane spike” underground caused by a burst radiator hose on July 28 last year.

Under the heading “absent or failed defences”, Mr Schielfelbein’s report said the mine’s methane drainage system was “at capacity and with no redundant capacity to meet any failures”.

Counsel assisting the inquiry, Glen Rice QC, asked whether Mr Smith was concerned the “whole system was held to ransom, in ­effect, by a radiator hose?”

Mr Smith said: “I would think it was unwise for the mine to continue to operate like that for an extended period; they would continue to get failures which would stop their operation and create other risks.

“I’d be very pleased they’d identified that they were at cap­acity and struggling … they would need to factor that into their ­actions going forward.”

Operations were not suspended by the inspectorate at this point.

Mr Smith said he was satisfied the mine had the situation under control. He later acknowledged that once the compressor was repaired, methane levels reduced.

There were further methane-related incidents at Grasstree. Eventually, on April 14, Mr Smith issued it with a notice to suspend operations, alleging the mine had a methane sensor in the wrong place; it was later rectified.

Mr Rice asked Mr Schielfelbein: “On the premise that methane drainage is a form of critical control (of a safety risk), however mundane the cause … the result could only be viewed as a failure of critical control?”

Mr Schielfelbein said: “Correct, yep.”

But he said Anglo American and the Grasstree operations acknowledged there were methane control issues and had worked to fix them, installing shields for gas and extra ventilation devices.