North Goonyella Mine Fire MRE 3rd October 2018. “The group then travelled to the northern boundary of the exclusion zone for the H9 shaft. There was a clear presence of light coloured smoke emitting from the shaft, indicating a level of combustion occurring underground. A clear smell of burning/combustibles was also noted at the observation point.”
MRE – North Goonyella – 03.10.2018.pdf
On Wednesday 3 October 2018 Inspectors Geoff Nugent and Robert Sherwood attend the North Goonyella Mine Accommodation Village to attend a meeting in regard to progress on dealing with the spontaneous combustion event, Inspectors arriving at 7:30am.
Update Meeting at 8:30am Saturday 2 October 2018
Attendees
Neville Impson (Compliance Manager), Gareth Prichard (Electrical Maintenance Planner)
Zac Swift (SSHR), Lee Earnshaw (Development Coordinator), John Anger (SSE)
Geoff Nugent (Mines Inspector), Rob Sherwood (Mines Inspector), Peter Baker (VP Peabody Australia), Chris Markowski (Tech Services NGC)
Dial in — Marek Romenski (UMM), David Cliff (Consultant), Shaun Dobson (Deputy Chief Inspector), Luca Rocchi (Chief Inspector)
Last 24
QMRS GAG stopped injecting underground at 1215 hours to 1445 hours with Battery issues – 2-hourly bag samples being taken from the GAG exhaust
NGC Conducted a RA for dropping concrete down a borehole
Several drone survey’s conducted
1:4 Drift plugged with 12 trucks of concrete totalling 114m3 (jn addition to 4 trucks (38 cubes) the previous day,
H40 fan housing plugged with Rocsil foam totalling 75m3 and 95m3 in evasees – 50m3 on explosion doors
Bore hole GN2701 drilled to 300m depth
Bore hole GN2702 Cased and waiting for grout to cure
Bore hole GN2703 drilled to 75.86m
7 Bag samples taken from bore holes GN2470, GN2690, GN2692, GN2698, GN26931 GN2696, GN2695
Next 24
Continue with GAG operations
Install tube bundle Monitoring point in H9 shaft
Continue drilling bore holes GN2701, GN2702 and GN2703 for LW containment
Meeting Notes
When MG chute Bore hole GN 2701 is complete NGC intend to source a bag sample of the underground environment and attempt to conduct temperature reading. If temperature is within operational parameters of the SIMTARS underground camera intend to use for UG visuals.
Mr N Impson reported that all bags taken in previous twenty four hours from goaf area are predominantly CH4 with <1% oxygen, also noted bore holes were mostly cold.
Tube Bundle installation for H9 shaft had not been completed and is targeted for completion today with remote bobcat, objective is to insert tube bundle as far down shaft as possible.
GAG has been running last 24hrs but had an unplanned stoppage 1215hrs — 1445hrs 2/10/2018 due to a battery issue, further exposure to this issue has been addressed,
NGC Floxal unit is still running and injecting into MG 9N 3ct seal.
GAG is planned to be stood for maintenance on Thursday 4/10/18 for 2 hours.
It was observed from Video of H9 shaft shown during meeting, the quantity of smoke emitting from previous day is substantially less.
We were informed of the following during the meeting:
e All North Goonyella and contractor crews returning to work today from days off, attended a pre-start meeting led by members of the management team and were provided with an update and current status of the mine.
o Additionally all personnel returning from days off have completed the new site access induction (including overarching WRAC) and reviewed JSA’s for specific areas of work.
Peter Baker commented NGC is still focusing on establishing effective gas monitoring points throughout the mine. There was general discussion around which points were appropriate, but a decision was not made at the time to determine monitoring points,
David Cliff commented if NGC were to inject foam to cool the environment underground on the Longwall face he recommended borehole GN2698 be utilised to inject foam due to proximity to LW face.
Site Visit
At 0915 Inspectors G Nugent and R Sherwood participated in the site access induction established by NGC for access onto the lease outside exclusion zones, The Induction was delivered by MrJeff Perks (Superintendent Health Safety &Training).
Inspectors G Nugent and R Sherwood were accompanied by Mr John Anger (SSE), Mr Peter Baker (VP Peabody Australia) and Mr Neville Impson (Compliance Manager). The group followed the site entry process at both security gates and proceeded to visit following locations;
QMRS GAG operations surface Bleeder Fan. The GAG was operating at the time of the visit injecting GAG product down Bleeder shaft.
Inspectors G Nugent and R Sherwood entered the GAG control room and discussed current GAG operation status with Mr Jeff Heasmann (QMRS GAG operator). Mr Heasmann noted that the GAG had been operating to expectations and there have been no issues of note impacting operations last night shift and dayshift today. Mr Heasmann discussed the planned GAG maintenance on Thursday 4 October 2018 which he will be taking part in.
We then travelled to the western side of the exclusion zone for the 1:4 belt drift, where soot from the underground fire was clearly apparent around the portal mouth and along the belt infrastructure leading to the Gantry, indicating during the fire event the mine was exhausting at this point for a period of time.
The group then travelled to the northern boundary of the exclusion zone for the H9 shaft. There was a clear presence of light coloured smoke emitting from the shaft, indicating a level of combustion occurring underground. A clear smell of burning/combustibles was also noted at the observation point.
The group returned to the North Goonyella village at 1130hrs
At 1330 hours Inspectors R Sherwood and G Nugent met with Mr J Anger, SSE and Mr P Baker, VP
Peabody Australia to discuss management of activities regarding working and accessing the established exclusion zones as per the directive issued by Inspector Nugent on 28 September 2018.
Messrs Baker and Anger were informed they were continued with the directive and if they intended to make changes to the exclusion zones which could affect compliance to the directive they must inform an inspector prior to doing so.
