On August 20, Grosvenor Mine took an important step forward in recovery works with about 50 mines rescue members safely re-entering the mine and reaching about 1500m underground in eight staged deployments to gather information about infrastructure, ventilation devices and environmental conditions.
It’s been a long recovery journey since production was suspended at Anglo American’s Grosvenor Mine in June 2024 due to methane gas ignition and the subsequent underground fire.
Grosvenor Mine General Manager Shane McDowall said the journey to re-entry had been defined by a safety-first mindset and a commitment to ensuring every step taken was safe and considered.
“To prepare for this milestone, our team leveraged advanced technology and out-of-the-box thinking to map and model the underground environment from the surface.
“These innovations provided unprecedented visibility of the underground environment – allowing us to plan the re-entry with confidence and clarity before anyone set foot below ground.”
SLAM LiDAR technology was used in a new way, lowering it down boreholes to map the underground workings from the surface to inspect infrastructure and conduct any damage assessments while monitoring the atmosphere underground.
High-resolution laser scanning of critical surface infrastructure for modification and fabrication for shaft ducting and fan installations also played a critical part of the re-ventilation process while drones supported the recovery providing high resolution imagery and videography, methane detection, thermal imagery and airborne LiDAR.
The Boston Dynamics’ robodog was even put through a trial at Moranbah North Mine as a potential tool to visually inspect Grosvenor Mine safely.
“The work leading up to approval of the Section 330 to allow us to go underground has been over several months. The priority of that work was to ensure the damage assessment footage that we got from LiDARs and from cameras lowered into the mine workings is cross-checked against our gas monitoring data to ensure the underground environment is ventilated and the area is safe for people to re-enter.
“Now we are working to validate the conditions indicated by our remote sensors with direct visual inspections as we work to recover the mine safely.
“We engaged Queensland Mines Rescue Service (QMRS) to complete the initial deployments into Zone A and members came from right across the Bowen Basin. A massive thanks to Cook Colliery, Kestrel, Broadmeadow, Ironbark, Crinum, Aquila and Moranbah North mines for releasing their mines rescue crews to assist in this operation. It’s really, really appreciated.
“Once we finish the reconnaissance inspections we will go through with our crews and rectify any areas of concern and ensure the area is safe which will allow us to then progress to our future stages of re-entry in the later part of this year.”
Shane said they would continue to work in collaboration with QMRS, Resources Safety and Health Queensland and industry safety and health representatives to ensure safety remained the highest priority at every stage of recovery.
“It’s been an incredible effort of everyone over the last 13 months to get to this point and none of this would have been possible without the dedication and expertise of our incredible team – from the engineers to our mines rescue crews and support staff. Their patience, professionalism and commitment to doing things the right way have made re-entry a reality.”
