CEO of Anglo American’s Metallurgical Coal business, Tyler Mitchelson, said:
“We have begun a series of briefings to update our Queensland workforce on the investigation and re-entry process for our Moranbah North Mine, following the controlled withdrawal of personnel on 20 February.
“We immediately commenced a controlled withdrawal of our people from underground on 20 February, when we received confirmation of elevated readings of the gases that would indicate a coal heating event and require the activation of a response plan (TARP).
“Based on our review of the evidence, we do not believe an ignition has occurred, and the most likely cause of the incident was coal heating and a large goaf fall behind the longwall face. This was a completely different incident to the methane ignition at Grosvenor Mine on 6 May 2020.*
“Our Moranbah North team immediately took a number of steps to manage the incident, and goaf conditions normalised shortly after the incident occurred. Expert technical advice is informing our risk assessment** process, which is currently underway with a cross-section of the workforce, and includes a review of measures to prevent a reoccurrence.
“Ultimately our processes worked to keep people safe, but we are always striving to find solutions to detect and address issues before they arise. We are currently using proven industry methods to manage spontaneous combustion risk in our mines, and will continue to seek out and assess other methods that may provide a higher level of control.
“Over the past 12 months, we have put in place a range of measures to improve our controls, such as creating a new Met Coal Analytics Centre to enhance our predictive capabilities in gas and strata, investing in additional surface infrastructure and fast-tracking technology solutions.
“Technological solutions offer the best opportunity to deliver a step-change improvement in safety in underground mining and we are leveraging our scale in underground coal mining and investing in a number of areas. Moranbah North is piloting some of this pioneering work including remote longwall operation and other technological innovations.
“We are continuing to engage closely with our workforce and union representatives, and continue to welcome any feedback they have to improve safety at our mines.”
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*During the incident, methane levels on the longwall were well within the regulatory levels.
**The risk assessment process is undertaken with a cross-section of coal mine workers, technical experts and SSHR.