Australia’s QCoal says workers sent home after death at coking coal mine By Reuters

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia’s QCoal said on Saturday workers at its 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 at the mine, about 840 km (530 miles) from the state capital Brisbane, on August 3.

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 QCoal spokesman said in a statement that the company had “decided to send the workforce home on full pay pending the initial outcome of ongoing investigations” into the latest death.

On Friday, Queensland’s mining regulator suspended the use of heavy vehicles at the mine after the incident involving two vehicles that killed the worker.

“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,” Rob Djukic, CEO of Resources Safety & Health Queensland. said in a statement.

Djukic said it was “disheartening and concerning to see a second death in less than a month at Byerwen,” adding that an agency investigation was ongoing.

The worker who died this week was employed by contractor Macmahon Holdings, the Australian Broadcasting Corp reported.

The Byerwen mine produces up to 10 million tonnes of coking coal, a steel-making ingredient, each year, according to QCoal.