The Queensland government recently issued a safety alert on inrush risks to underground mines due to well above-average rainfalls over the past few months.

Detailed in the Queensland Mines Inspectorate’s compilation report for February, about 1.1 megalitres of water entered an undisclosed underground mine through the portal and ventilation shaft in one incident, with the water resting at the bottom of a decline.

There was also a roof fall at an underground coal mine which followed an inrush of water through roadways and fractured roof strata.

In a separate incident, an inspection of the surface above a longwall block for subsidence-mapping purposes led to the discovery of a sinkhole containing water.

The inspectorate said the crew underground had been withdrawn to a place of safety.

A 25 metre-long section of rib slumped in a roadway of an underground coal mine in another incident.

A roadway development crew was caught off-guard when the continuous miner unexpectedly intersected a surface-to-seam borehole at an undisclosed mine.

Explosion risk-related incidents in underground coal mines included a maintenance discovery that flame-proof integrity had been “breached at the joint on the exhaust pipe between the scrubber tank and the crossover purifier”.

An arc flash also occurred in another incident when a shuttle car outrigger struck a rib.

Power cable connectors were found to be exposed on a continuous miner, caused when the cable jammed between the steps and frame of the machine.

In a loss of control incident, an Eimco 130 load haul dump equipped with a lift basket slid down a 1:4 grade decline for about 60m before coming to a halt.

The inspectorate said the LHD was carrying four workers.

The combined number of serious accidents and high-potential incidents in Queensland hit 189 last month compared to the 12-month rolling average of 135.