Anglo secures Grosvenor underground mine re-entry

The safety regulator has approved initial re-entry steps at the Anglo mine almost a year after an underground explosion seriously injured five miners

Inside Anglo American's Grosvenor Coal Mine near Moranbah, the scene of a major explosion on May 6, 2020. Picture: Youtube

Safety regulators have approved the initial re-entry steps at Anglo American’s Grosvenor Mine almost a year after an underground explosion seriously injured five coal miners.

Resources Safety and Health Queensland began inspections at Grosvenor’s underground mine this week as Anglo started its re-entry process onsite.

Anglo American confirmed re-entry today.

It is just weeks shy of the 12-month anniversary of the May 6 explosion at the longwall panel.

RSHQ, in a statement, said the staged re-entry of the mine was scheduled to start on Thursday and followed works by Anglo to seal the longwall panel where the explosion occurred.

“It also follows Grosvenor mine demonstrating to the inspectorate it has addressed the directive which prevented re-entry to the mine, and that a restricted re-entry can now be undertaken at an acceptable level of risk,” the statement read.

“The staged re-entry is anticipated to continue over the weekend and into next week, with five RSHQ inspectors involved in the re-entry.

Injured coal miner Wayne Sellars, badly burned in the explosion at the Grosvenor mine at Moranbah on May 6 2020, arrives to give evidence at the coal mining board of inquiry, Brisbane 7th of April 2021. (Image/Josh Woning)

“A directive, issued by the inspectorate, preventing the commencement of production activities at the mine will remain in place until the mine is able to further demonstrate to the inspectorate that the Grosvenor mine’s safety and health management system provides for suitable controls to prevent a reoccurrence of the kind of incident that occurred in May last year.”

Anglo America’s Metallurgical Coal business CEO Tyler Mitchelson said the re-entry was a positive step towards the safe restart of mining at Grosvenor.

“Following a substantive program of work that included permanently sealing the impacted area of the mine with five large, concrete seals and installing additional gas monitoring infrastructure, we completed a highly rigorous risk assessment process ahead of re-entry, drawing on both internal and external experts,” he said.

The entry to Grosvenor Mine, near Moranbah. Picture: Daryl Wright

“We are taking a staged approach to re-entry, with the team initially completing safety and compliance inspections, and restoring power and gas monitoring to ensure the safety and integrity of the mine.

“I would like to acknowledge the very thorough and detailed approach taken by RSHQ in working with us over the past few months to ensure the permanent sealing process and our risk assessment for mine re-entry reflects leading industry practice.

“We are continuing to capture and action relevant learnings as they become available, including through the Board of Inquiry.

Injured workers from an explosion at Grosvenor coal mine at Moranbah arriving in Brisbane. Picture: Josh Woning/AAP

“Last year we started a significant body of safety improvement work, with an emphasis on expediting technology solutions including remote operations, and these solutions will be embedded at Grosvenor prior to restarting longwall mining in the second half of this year.”