Mining company admits work safety breach

East Otago mining company Oceana Gold has admitted liability for an accident in which an employee lost a finger while working in the company's underground mine at Macraes Flat last July.

Oceana Gold was represented by counsel in the Dunedin District Court this week when it pleaded to a Health and Safety in Employment Act charge.

The company admitted failing as an employer to take all practicable steps to ensure the safety of Johnstone Henry Lyle Palmer by protecting him from hazards arising from his use of a cable bolter cement handling unit at the Frasers underground gold mine on Golden Point Rd on July 2.

The facts summary from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment said Mr Palmer worked as a ''nipper'' with another employee, Michael Gibbons, operating a cable bolter cement handling unit used in the strengthening the roofs of underground roadways.

Roof bolts were installed in drilled holes in the roof and tensioned to bind to the surrounding strata before cement-based grout was pumped between the cable bolts and the surrounding hole.

On July 2 last year, the two men had problems pushing the cables into the holes drilled in the roof. The delay caused the mixed grout to harden in the mixing bowl and it could not be pumped into the holes. That meant they had to clean the grout from the bowl.

They were going to do that with a water blaster but it was not working that day, so Mr Gibbons removed the lid, activating an interlock to stop the mixing paddles operating, and used his hands to remove grout from the top of the bowl.

Mr Palmer used a lower pressure hose to flush water into the bowl's outlet, which was normally closed by the dump valve but had been opened by Mr Gibbons using a switch above the bowl. After Mr Gibbons opened the valve, Mr Palmer placed his left hand inside while using the water hose. The steel dump valve guard was not in place.

About the same time, Mr Gibbons inadvertently bumped the valve control switch and Mr Palmer's hand was caught between the valve and the outlet. He called to Mr Gibbons to open the dump valve so he could pull his hand free and was taken to hospital in Dunedin.

His finger could not be reattached. The company had failed to ensure the steel guard was in place over the dump valve, the summary said. Mr Gibbons remembered seeing the guard on the cable bolter when the machine was on the surface and later, when it went underground.

He had been associated with the machine's operation for about 15 months and could not recall seeing a dump guard in that time. After the accident, the metal guard was found nearby. It was being used as a container to store spray cans.

Who had removed the guard, which was originally bolted to the machine, was not known. Neither was it known why or when it had been removed. Had the guard been fitted, Mr Palmer would not have been able to access the closing valve.

The company could have ensured the dump valve was fitted with a guard, the summary said. The dump control valve operating switch was modified after the accident to prevent its inadvertent operation.

And the hazard of people catching their hands in the dump valve had been identified by the manufacturer of the cable bolter, because the machine had been supplied to Oceana with a guard.

Practicable steps the company could have taken to prevent the accident were the guarding of the dump valve, checking the guard had been replaced if it was removed and changing the management process so if a person wanted to remove the guard, it was handled in a controlled manner to manage the hazards.

Judge Stephen Coyle remanded Oceana for sentence in May.