Huge win for coal miner after ‘earthquake’ blast
Although two workers were hospitalized after an open-pit explosion, the miner was cleared of the charges.
Four convictions of Maules Creek Coal and its parent company Whitehaven Coal were successfully overturned in the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal on Wednesday after the court ruled that explosives were used appropriately.
The miner was found guilty of breaching environmental protection laws in 2024 following an explosion at the Maules Creek open coal mine at Boggabri in northern NSW in August 2020.
He used approximately 900,000 kg of explosives to mine coal; this was approximately 50,000 kg more than modeling required.
The resulting explosion exceeded noise limits and required hospital treatment for two workers at a different coal mine more than a kilometer away.
Maules Creek Coal was ordered to pay fines totaling $200,000 and to publish a statement summarizing the decision and penalties.
But appeal judges on Wednesday found that it was not clear that the excessive noise was caused by an overload of explosives and that it was not proven that the company acted incompetently in setting up the explosion.
A miner who lives 12 kilometers from the Maules Creek Mine near Boggabri said the “terrifying” explosion was bigger than anything he had experienced in his 17-year career.
Another resident told a first NSW Land and Environment Court hearing that she wondered if it was an earthquake and that her sun lounger shook during the explosion on August 20, 2020.
Two workers at the adjacent Boggabri coal mine were taken to hospital for checks after the incident; One of them said the “fabulous pop” caused tinnitus and serious sleep problems in the following months.
But a trio of appeal judges unanimously ruled that the Land and Environment Court had failed to conclude that the company had failed to comply with its obligations under its environmental protection licence.
Judges Julie Ward, Mark Leeming and Desmond Fagan wrote: “Subsequent modelling… cast reasonable doubt on the allegation that the materials were not used appropriately and efficiently.”
They overturned the Maules Creek Coal convictions and instead granted acquittals on four charges.
The final decision on costs arising from the initial hearing will be heard in the Land and Environment Court at a later date.
Australia’s Associated Press is the beating heart of Australian news. AAP is Australia’s only independent national news channel and has been providing accurate, reliable and fast-paced news content to the media industry, government and corporate sector for 85 years. We inform Australia.
