Occupational Health
When Whitehaven Coal acquired BMA’s Daunia and Blackwater mines in Queensland’s Bowen Basin, it wasn’t just the company’s biggest purchase to date.
Unexpected piezometer trends in a tailings dam triggered an investigation that uncovered an overlooked variable in dissipation testing – the type of saturation fluid.
Mining loves a neat correlation – tonnes per shift, dollars per ounce, emissions per unit, but as Peter Burton pointed out at AusIMM’s Critical Minerals 2025 in Perth, one thing that refuses to fit a tidy graph is safety performance.
A series of recent mine safety incidents in New South Wales and Queensland has reinforced ongoing concerns about worker safety in both underground and surface coal operations.
Queensland’s Coal Mines Inspectorate has warned that coal mining operations are continuing to report repeat safety incidents, with fatigue, dust exposure, fires on mobile equipment, and falls from plant access systems among the most common issues identified in its September 2025 incident periodical.
When Jeff Samuels took the stage at the NSW Resources Regulator’s 33rd Mechanical Engineering Safety Seminar, he didn’t mince words: excavators roll over, people die, and the only way to ensure real protection is through ISO-certified rollover and falling object protective structures.
When a brand-new 70-tonne excavator rolled onto site, it should have represented progress for Metromix.
When it comes to crane safety, a licence card in your wallet doesn’t necessarily mean you’re competent – and that uncomfortable truth sat at the heart of a recent presentation to the NSW Resources Regulator’s 33rd Mechanical Engineering Safety Seminar in Sydney.
An underground mining contractor has been fined $540,000 after a rock fall at the Hamlet Underground Gold Mine near Kambalda killed a driller and injured a probationary offsider.
AI and automation might reshape the future of mining safety, but Cam Stevens argues the real risk is leaving safety professionals out of the conversation.
