Family still searching for answers over father’s Mt Lyell mine death

The daughter of a miner who was killed in a mud slide at a West Coast mine says the family is still searching for answers after more than five years.

Two workers lost their lives at the Mt Lyell mine in a mud slide in January 2014.

THE daughter of late Mt Lyell miner Michael Welsh may have left Queenstown but the drawn-out inquest into her dad’s death in a mud slide is making moving on difficult.

Tameka Sylvester left Tasmania for NSW after Mr Welsh’s death underground in January 2014.

He was just 53, a well-known local and an experienced miner.

“We packed up and moved out. I didn’t want to be reminded of what had happened all the time,” she said.

Ms Sylvester learned this week, via the media, that the inquest into her father’s death was set to resume now a legal challenge by mining company Copper Mines of Tasmania had been quashed by the High Court.

Tameka Sylvester and her late father Michael Welsh, who died in a mud slide at the Mt Lyell mine.

Today, she backed up what former mining manager Jared DeRoss told coroner Simon Cooper in April 2018 when the inquest began, that safety concerns were raised the night before, and again just 20 minutes prior, to her father bring sent down into the mine and killed in a mud slide.

“We need answers as a family. Why was he sent to that level when the company had been told it was an unsafe work environment?” she said.

“The area should have been inspected by people higher up than the shift boss and my dad.

“The biggest let down this time around is that we have been kept in the dark about the progression of the coronial process.”

The date for the resumption of the inquest is yet to be set but Ms Sylvester said she would fly back to Tasmania to hear the evidence presented.

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Former CMT project manager Jared DeRoss. Picture: CHRIS KIDD

There could be some shuffling of management chairs at CMT before the inquest resumes.

Peter Walker, who has been acting GM for the past four years, is on leave.

When contacted by the Mercury he rejected suggestions he had been stood down but did say he was considering his options and may not return to the job.

A CMT spokesman confirmed Mr Walker was on leave and said CMT’s project manager

Clint Mayes had been appointed senior site manager in his absence.

There is no sign when, or if, the mothballed mine might reopen.

The last update came from Indian parent company Vedanta in its annual report.

The entrance to the Mt. Lyell mine.

The mine has been in care and maintenance mode since 2013 following the deaths of miners Alistair Lucas and Craig Gleeson who fell to their deaths after a platform broke.

Six weeks later Mr Welsh was killed at work.

“We continue to evaluate various options for a profitable restart given the government’s current favourable support and good prices,” Vedanta said.

The State Government has given Vedanta $9.5 million to help it undertake works towards a restart and also put a payroll tax deal on the table in the event the mine does begin producing copper again.