Silicosis strikes at Australia’s biggest gold mine

The safety regulator has again raised concerns about excessive dust at Australia’s biggest gold mine after an employee was diagnosed with silicosis during a routine preventative health check, with calls to expand checks to contractors and former workers.

Workers at US giant Newmont’s Boddington mine in Western Australia were told by email in August that a CT scan offered through a company health monitoring program had detected early-stage silicosis in a colleague before symptoms emerged.

Silica dust can be created when mined rocks are crushed before the gold is extracted.Credit: Bloomberg via Getty Images

Since 2020, the dust problem – which centres around grinders that crush silica-containing rock to allow the precious metal to be extracted – has been highlighted six times by WA safety regulator WorkSafe.

Boddington mine, 100 kilometres south-east of Perth, employs about 2000 people. This includes about 800 contractors who are not part of Newmont’s health monitoring program.

In the internal update, seen by this masthead, Newmont made clear the importance of monitoring.

“Early preventative measures will stop the disease from progressing before symptoms appear or normal lung function is affected,” the company said.

Dr Ryan Hoy, head of the occupational respiratory clinic at Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital, said the risks of silica have been known for more than a century.

The danger comes when fine silica particles too small to see are inhaled and are lodged in the deepest, tiny reaches of the lung.

Hoy said the silica particles were toxic to the cells that try to clear the lungs of debris, so the silica builds up, inflammation leads to scarred tissue, and gradually the lung loses its ability to transfer oxygen into the bloodstream.

“Detecting this as early as possible is so important … that reduces the likelihood of it progressing,” Hoy said, adding that there were no treatments to reverse the scarring.

WA is the only state that requires low-dose CT scans to detect silicosis. The technology is more sensitive than X-rays in detecting the disease and gives the patient a much lower radiation exposure than full-dose CT scans.

WorkSafe regional inspector of mines Martin Ralph said there was no difference between direct employees and contractors in health and safety legislation, and any worker exposed to the same risks should get the same level of health monitoring.

“It is Newmont’s responsibility to ensure that the monitoring is done,” he said, and WorkSafe was investigating the matter.

A Newmont spokeswoman said the company was reviewing contractors’ exclusion from the monitoring program: “With this latest information [the diagnosis], this strategy is being reviewed.”

Too much dust

Boddington is a prime asset in the Colorado-based company’s global operations.

Sales of gold and copper earned $2.75 billion of revenue in 2022, according to filings to the corporate regulator by the two Newmont subsidiaries that own the mine. A profit of $475 million supported dividends of $440 million to the parent company.

WorkSafe’s mine safety group has identified health risks from dust at Boddington six times since January 2020 and issued Newmont an improvement notice in 2021, a spokesman for the regulator said.

The Newmont spokeswoman said the company had cut dust levels at the dry processing plant by 70 per cent over the past 10 years and fixed the issues detailed in the improvement notice.

Respirators were mandatory in at-risk areas and the company was testing real-time monitors to identify the most concerning areas of the plant.

Ralph said the diagnosis raised a red flag, and Newmont needed to make its Boddington site as dust-free as possible.

In recent years, silicosis cases have soared among workers who cut so-called “engineered stone” made from silica for kitchen benchtops, leading to federal Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke predicting silica could become the new asbestos.

Hoy said the risk from silica had been much better managed in the mining sector.

“What we’ve seen in the benchtop industry has been horrendous work conditions, with silica levels hundreds or thousands of times above the exposure standard,” he said.

Past workers left in limbo

Hoy said while it could take 20 years for silicosis to develop, employers provided no screening once an employee leaves, and as it is an occupational disease, Medicare does not cover the cost of scans.

“So patients would have to pay for it out of their own pocket, which is completely unfair because often the effects of exposure won’t manifest until they have left work,” he said.

Queensland is the exception, however, where former mine workers have free respiratory health surveillance under a scheme introduced after the re-emergence of black lung disease, an affliction similar to silicosis.

Ralph said widespread failures from all involved led to Queensland miners receiving diagnoses many thought were part of history.

“The regulator was slow off the mark, the industry was complicit, the unions were complicit, but also the medical practitioners were complicit as well in this, they dropped the ball big time,” he said.

Stephen Smyth, a vice president of the Mining and Energy Union, said a move in the 1990s from prescriptive legislation to a “risk-based” approach – where companies determined their own risk levels and how to manage them – contributed to the problem.

“We’ve got prescriptive levels now for where the dust monitoring must occur, how it is to be done, and if there’s a failure, what happens,” he said.

Queensland mining companies pay a health and safety fee of up to $1356 per worker a year that funds, among many other activities, the respiratory monitoring.

Smyth said it was important anyone exposed to mineral dust at work participated in proper health surveillance so the slight changes in the lungs that warn of future problems can be detected.

This masthead asked WA Mines Minister Bill Johnston if the state government would require mining companies to provide health monitoring to former employees at the same risk of getting silicosis as current employees.

His spokeswoman said the government had no proposals for such a change.

In the absence of screening, the minister was also asked what he suggested past employees of Newmont do if they have had significant exposure to dust and are concerned about their health.

“Workers who are seeking financial compensation for health issues relating to silica dust exposure can apply for workers’ compensation or take civil action,” Johnston’s spokeswoman said.

Workers in WA’s mining sector who have health or safety concerns, including exposure to dust, that they have not been able to resolve through company processes can confidentially inform WorkSafe by calling 1300 307 877.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.