Inspector during Anglo methane scares now an executive at miner

Qld’s chief mines inspector during Anglo American’s Grosvenor methane incidents now works for the company.

Workers at Grosvenor Mine last year.

Queensland’s chief mines ­inspector responsible for regulating the industry when Anglo American’s Grosvenor mine ­recorded at least 55 dangerously high methane incidents without being forced to suspend operations is now a senior executive at the global company.

Luca Rocchi was the state government’s chief inspector of mines between August 2017 and August last year, when he was headhunted by Anglo to become “head of technical” in its metallurgical coal leadership team.

The Australian revealed on Monday that Anglo American’s Grosvenor mine had recorded dangerously high methane levels at least 98 times in the four years before an explosion on May 6, which nearly killed five workers. Mines inspectors knew of the repeated methane incidents, and inspected the central Queensland mine regularly, but did not direct Anglo to suspend operations due to an unacceptable risk.

Mr Rocchi, who has had more than 32 years’ experience in the mining industry and is a qualified mines manager in Queensland and NSW, was in charge of regulating all of the state’s coalmines.

It is not known whether he personally conducted an inspection of the Grosvenor mine.

He oversaw an industry-wide audit of the state’s eight longwall coalmines — including Anglo’s Grosvenor, Grasstree and Moranbah North — that found some mines were not reporting all high-methane incidents as required by law, and “in some cases explosive mixtures of methane could have been present in the atmosphere flowing into the longwall tailgate”. The mines are de-identified in the report.

 

Five miners were badly burned at the Grosvenor underground mine, near Moranbah in central Queensland, when methane ignited and exploded last month. Anglo American is still investigating the cause of the blast, as is the mines inspectorate. Mines Minister Anthony Lynham has ordered a powerful board of inquiry led by retired District Court judge Terry Martin, who on Monday night said the inquiry would investigate the inspectorate.

Another former mines ­inspector, Les Marlborough, an experienced resources industry figure, has a long employment history with Anglo American. The Australian is not suggesting Mr Rocchi or Mr Marlborough acted improperly or had conflicts of interest in their roles with the inspectorate or Anglo American.

Government and company documents leaked to The Australian show Mr Marlborough was compliance manager at Grosvenor until at least March 20, 2017. A week later, he was regional inspector for the Queensland Mines Inspectorate, and by August 11 had issued Grosvenor a directive by post for failing to comply with ­respirable dust monitoring legislation.

By September 9, Mr Marlborough had identified “several areas of concern” with Grosvenor’s approach to methane management, and issued a directive by post for it to review its Trigger ­Action Response Plan regarding methane concentration.

Mr Marlborough returned to Anglo American to become the underground mine manager of its Aquila hard coking coal mine near Middlemount in April last year.

Commissioner for Mine Safety and Health Kate du Preez’s most recent annual report says the ­operational independence of the inspectorate is of “paramount ­importance”. “The inspectorate works to minimise any possibility, or even perception, of regulatory capture occurring,” she said.

There is a small pool of people qualified to become mines inspectors, and they tend to be former senior staff at mining companies, meaning overlaps do occur.

Ms du Preez said inspectors were given integrity and ethics training to raise awareness of regulatory capture. She said an ­internal policy meant new inspectors would not be assigned to inspect or audit a mine at which they worked for at least six months.

Liberal National Party opposition mines spokesman Dale Last said new measures should be put in place to ensure inspectors never inspected mines where they had worked. “That keeps it at arm’s length, there needs to be that perception of impartiality,” he said.

A spokeswoman for Anglo American said the mine comprehensively responded to all mine record entries, directives and high-potential incidents.

“We have completed 124 separate actions in response to our investigations into the methane exceedances that ­occurred at Grosvenor from 1 July 2019,” he said.

The Australian put questions to Anglo American, Mr Rocchi and Mr Marlborough through the company about their roles at the inspectorate and the company.

A spokeswoman declined to comment, but said both men were respected in the industry and very experienced: “They would undoubtedly adhere to any integrity or conflict processes in the organisations that they work for.”