SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia’s QCoal said on Saturday that workers at the Byerwen coking coal mine in Queensland state had been sent home pending an investigation into the death of a worker at the site on Thursday.
The man’s death comes after another worker died on August 3 at the mine, about 840 kilometers from the capital Brisbane.
Brisbane-based QCoal operates the Bowen Basin open-pit mine, of which it owns 85%, in a joint venture with Japan’s JFE Steel Corp.
A spokesperson for QCoal said in a statement that the company “decided to send staff home on full pay pending the initial outcome of the ongoing investigation” into the latest fatality.
On Friday, Queensland’s mining regulator suspended the use of heavy vehicles at the mine following the incident involving two vehicles that caused the worker’s death.
“QCoal has chosen to suspend operations at the mine, but we have taken this extra step to ensure that activities involving heavy vehicles cannot take place until our inspector is satisfied that it is safe to do so ” said Rob Djukic, CEO of Resources Safety & Health Queensland. said in a statement.
Djukic said it was “disheartening and concerning to see a second fatality in Byerwen in less than a month”, adding that an investigation by the agency was underway.
The worker who died this week was employed by contractor Macmahon Holdings, the Australian Broadcasting Corp reported.
According to QCoal, the Byerwen mine produces up to 10 million tonnes of hard coking coal annually, an ingredient for steelmaking.
