North Goonyella Fire MRE’s March 2013 to December 2014. Installation of Compliant Surface Emergency Seals Including Shafts.
There are a series of Mine Record Entries from 2013 and 2014 that directly deal with Spontaneous Combustion, PHMP’s, Emergency Sealing at the Surface at North Goonyella.
How the North Goonyella Mine and Management changed or did not change its outlook and actions between 2014 and 2018; impact directly on their Unsuccessful efforts to control Spontaneous Combustion in 2018 which resulted in a Fire, Explosion and sealing of the Mine and retrenchment of the workforce.
I note that Marek Romanski and Mike Carter held positions of UMM and SSE respectively during at least part of this time period. Romanski was still the UMM in 2018 and Carter was brought in as part of the Incident Management Team
130304 Surface Seals KB DME MRE
130909 Emergency Surf Seals RA DME MRE
140114 7N Ethylene Prep Seals Albury DME MRE
140314 Albury Shaft Sealing DME MRE
141204 DME MRE Surface Emergency Albury
Inspector Keith Brennan attended North Goonyella on 4th March 2013
An opening Meeting was held with SSE Steve Dick; Underground Mine Manager Marek Romanski and SSHR Neil Ludlow, we discussed the following:
Compliance with Directive regarding the installing of the Bat Bags (Stone Dust Barriers) as a control to reduce the opportunity of the proliferation of a blast front affecting the surface infrastructure
156 Entry airlocks and emergency mine sealing
I advised SSE Steve Dick that I will be issuing a Directive requiring North Goonyella Coal to comply with the legislation requiring the construction of an airlock capable of withstanding a 70kPa overpressure and other entrances to the mine complying with Regulation 325 – 2 – (b) i.e. Portals; Bleeder Fan; G — H 9.5ct downcast shaft and H 40 upcast shaft.
On the 9th September Inspector Brennan and Bulger recorded this in the MRE
We enquired as to the progress of directives issued on the 4th March 2013 regarding Airlock construction and Hazard Management (Stone Dust Barriers) issued on the 29th October 2012 due for compliance on the 27th September 2013. We were advised of the progress of the installation of the stone dust barriers commenced but is in doubt if compliance can be met by the agreed compliance date. As almost twelve months have elapsed since the issuing of the Directive my expectations that compliance with the directive be expedited for compliance.
Emergency Airlock construction, we were advised that North Goonyella progress made towards achieving the requirement listed in MRE is as follows:
- Actual current VCD rating at both mine portals (1: 7 M&M drift and 1:4 Conveyor drift) have been evaluated and quotes sought to upgrade to min. 70kPa rating (type E seal) Upgrading secondary mine entry airlock — quotes sought for upgrading to min. 70kPa rating for both open and closed
- Inspections of several Mines which have already installed the required airlocks have been completed.
- Quotes and intention to complete the required work are expected to be confirmed before the end of October
- Other entrances (shaft sealing), similarly related to MRE #1645 dated 1 I th March, 2013
- A site risk assessment completed re: Explosion relief at main upcast shaft
- CFD (computational fluid dynamics) has been conducted to evaluate the effect of an explosion
- All shaft (3) entrances (namely: H9, Northern Bleeder & H40) will be further investigated to enable appropriate emergency sealing to the required standard.
On 14th January 2014 Inspector Albury recorded the Installation of Prep Seals and made the following suggestion about being able to use boreholes to remotely monitoring and obtain gas data after the mine has been evacuated.
- Prep seals are under construction in both MG and TG 7 Nth in the off chance that the situation develops into a serious heating event.
- I suggested that the mine prepare a process for taking gas bag samples from boreholes and ensure there are boreholes and sites available should the SIMTARS mobile lab be required and the mine is evacuated. This is a precautionary process in the event that an evacuation occurs and gas data from underground has to be gained from the surface.
On 14th March 2014 Inspector Albury’s MRE states
A safeguard audit was conducted at North Goonyella mine from the 10th – 14th of March. Following the entry meeting, on the 10th of March, and over the time from the 10th to 14th of March interviews were conducted with various people and physical observations made of the processes in use at the mine. The subject areas of Combustible Dust Management, Management Structure, CHPP operations, Risk management, Spontaneous Combustion management and Ventilation Management were examined in detail.
Nine mandatory corrective actions were identified and are described as:
2) Review the Management Structure so that it is derived through a risk management process so that it is clear the positions in the management structure have ownership of hazards.
3) Develop a Training Needs Analysis for the positions in the Management Structure.
7) Implement a system of auditing of the documented system for Spontaneous Combustion and Ventilation.
Twelve recommended corrective actions were identified and are described as:
2) Ventilation Officer reporting through Technical Services Mgr from a budgetary view point and not UMM. This has implications for mine ventilation planning.
11) Develop emergency sealing infrastructure in the underground mine, including the ventilation shaft.
A telephone conference was conducted by the lead auditor with the SSE, with the UMM Marek Romanski present in the room at the mine, on the evening of the 13th of March where the Site Senior Executive, Mr Mike Carter, to the proposed Mandatory and Recommended corrective actions. (A further face to face meeting between the SSE and the Lead Auditor was conducted at the Mary St Office on Monday 17th March where the SSE signed off on all Mandatory and Recommended corrective actions).
On the 4th December 2014 Inspector Albury made the following comments
The discussions were concluded with an update on the actions resulting from the Safeguard audit conducted at North Goonyella earlier in the year. The discussion included:
The Spon Comb and Ventilation PHMP’s have been reviewed and audited by Mr John Rowlands. A work order is in the maintenance system to review each of the PHMP’s through out the year.
The relationship and link between the Peabody cardinal rules and the SHMS is under development. The first attempt to communicate this needs rework.
Emergency sealing of the mine was discussed. The man and materials drift now complies with the legislation. Plans are underway and money allocated in the budget to install steel guillotine doors at the entry to the longwall panel for emergency sealing use. The doors will be activated form the surface via a wire rope and borehole. I suggested that the mine consider the Sth Blakefield solution using Rocksil plugs. This allows the seals to be put in place where they are required at the time and reduces the amount of open roadway which needs to be inertised.
