Contractor charged after worker fatality at Anglo mine

afr.com:

A charge following the death of a worker at an Anglo American coal mine has been laid against contracting business Mastermyne.

The summons against Mastermyne Contracting Services, a subsidiary of ASX-listed Metarock, was served late on Wednesday, following Gavin Feltwell’s death in late March last year at Moranbah North mine.

The coal industry has been subject to government inquiries after worker deaths.  Glen Hunt

The local union, CFMEU, had described Mr Feltwell, 59, as an experienced worker. He died when a four-tonne load was being moved.

The charge is under Queensland’s Coal Mining Safety and Health Act and relates to allegations of a failure to meet a contractor’s duty. A hearing is scheduled at the Industrial Magistrates Court in Moranbah in January next year.

Mackay-based Metarock on Thursday said the maximum possible penalty from the charge was $2 million. It did not indicate whether it planned to defend the matter and declined to make further comments.

Mr Feltwell’s death prompted a Resources Safety and Health Queensland investigation, and the charge was subsequently laid by the Office of the Work Health and Safety Prosecutor. The office refused to answer queries on Thursday.

Mr Feltwell’s death was the second for Mastermyne after another worker died in September 2021 at another Queensland mine. The contracting business said it had not suffered any fatalities in the previous 25 years.

Anglo American was charged in 2020 of breaching workplace health and safety laws over the death of another worker, Bradley Hardwick, at Moranbah North mine in 2019 but was found not guilty in the Brisbane Magistrates Court this year.

Six deaths happened at Queensland mines and quarries in 2018 and 2019, prompting a government