By 3 News online staff
Solid Energy has stopped underground mining at its Spring Creek mine due to safety concerns.
It is understood work at the site, near Greymouth, was stopped when the Department of Labour issued a prohibition notice because of three “recent incidents” at the underground mine.
The incidents – which occurred over the past three weeks – a diesel generator caught fire and injected high concentrations of carbon monoxide into the mine, a fan tripped with no alert to management for 90 minutes and an underground auxiliary fan which stopped working on two consecutive days but did not, as it should have, stop the mining machine, Acting Chief Inspector of Mines Gavin Taylor says.
“Members of my team met Solid Energy this morning, and they determined the events represented failures in management processes. The inspectors were very concerned that the issues had not been fully investigated, yet production had continued.
“The inspectors issued the prohibition notice which stopped the mine’s operations.
The incidents “should not have happened”, chief operating officer Barry Bragg said.
''The company views these incidents very seriously. We recognise that expectations for underground mining have been raised substantially.
''We will work very closely with the Department to ensure we meet our and their expectations prior to resuming mining at Spring Creek.''
There were around 40 workers underground at the time of the incidents, but Mr Bragg says there was no risk to life.
“The prohibition notice will only be lifted once Solid Energy has provided an explanation of the events, a thorough investigation has been carried out and engineering controls and management systems have been changed to prevent a recurrence of these issues,” Mr Taylor says.
It’s not the first time work at the mine has been stopped; underground operations were suspended in May last year when a load, haul, dump machine caught fire.
Work was also stopped for five months in November 2010 after two coal face heatings and the Pike River disaster.
Twenty-nine men lost their lives following an explosion at Pike River. Their bodies have not yet been recovered.
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