Queensland mine safety statistics improve

23.05.12

PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Queensland’s mining industry continued to rank among the safest in the world, Employment, Skills and Mining Minister Stirling Hinchliffe said on Tuesday, announcing the latest health and safety statistics.

Work-related injuries in the mining industry continued to improve across a number of key performance indicators during 2010/11.

“Injuries to workers resulting in lost time fell from 307 in 2009/10 to 273 injuries, while disabling injuries rose from 428 the previous year to 505. Importantly, lost time injury frequency rates fell again from 3.8 injuries per million hours worked to 2.9 injuries.”

However, during 2010/11, the Queensland mining industry reported three fatalities, two of which were vehicle-related accidents at surface coal mines, while the third resulted from an earth collapse at a small opal claim.

Hinchliffe noted that days lost to injuries were down from 14 325 days to 11 027 days while the duration rate of injuries fell from 34.4 days to 27.4 days per injury.

Source: Creamer Media's Mining Weekly