MINING is an “inherently risky work”, The Australian Workers' Union national organiser Shane Roulstone says following earthquakes that have occurred around the region’s mine sites.
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In the past two years, five earthquakes have occurred near Newcrest Mining’s Cadia Valley Operations (CVO) gold mine near Orange, with another five during the same time period at the proposed Regis Resources’s McPhillamy’s Gold Mine site at Blayney
The smallest was 1.8 magnitude (ML), while the largest was 4.3 ML.
The most recent quakes near the Blayney site occurred within two hours of each other on Sunday – the first was 2.6ML, the second was 2.1ML.
While at Cadia, the most recent tremor measured 3.8ML and struck on July 22. It halted underground mining operations.
The Australian Workers’ Union’s Mr Roulstone said earthquakes were always a concern to underground miners and the most recent one at Cadia left workers worried.
“Workers were concerned because there was a series of tremors,” he said.
Mining is inherently risk work, it’s part of the business and most of the operators are doing the right thing.
- The Australian Workers' Union national organiser Shane Roulstone
“The chance of a collapse is significant.”
During the quake in April, CVO’s underground crews moved to safety chambers when they felt the tremor which originated just five kilometres from the heart of the mine’s operations.
Mr Roulstone said safety of underground crews was paramount and processes must be followed when a quake occurs.
“They stop work, isolate equipment and move to a safe place,” he said.
“If you’re lucky you might get three seconds.
“Mining is inherently risk work, it’s part of the business and most of the operators are doing the right thing.”
Mr Roulstone said safety standards in underground mining had changed significantly in the past century and these days there were a lot more safety precautions.
“It’s more more regulated in regards to how they structure the shafts and how they reinforce them compared to 100 years ago,” he said.
“While they’re not earthquake proof, there’s reinforced areas that they can go to and be confident of being reasonably safe.
“Australia’s pretty stable when it comes to earthquakes compared to a whole lot of other countries.”