A small fire started on a load haul dump as it drove out of the mine on Friday evening.

The country’s major coal producer, which seeks to purchase Pike’s assets, said the fire was quickly extinguished by the machine operator.

The workforce was subsequently brought out of the mine, authorities were notified of the incident and all other LHDs were inspected.

Solid chief operating officer Barry Bragg said the mine’s emergency procedures worked well and the company was confident the mine was operating safely.

The LHD incident occurred while the mine was preparing to restart extraction in a new panel. Solid said the production start-up was delayed by about 48 hours.

Spring Creek ceased hydro-mining in early November after the mine’s monitoring systems indentified signs of spontaneous combustion in two areas.

Solid general manager of underground operations Craig Smith has previously told ILN that heatings were found in the goaf area of extraction panel 7.

He added that this panel would remain sealed off and a barrier of coal would separate the old goaf, while extraction would start up in a new panel.

The company was still investigating the cause of the incident when the first explosion struck the Pike River mine on November 19.

With production suspended and many Spring Creek workers deployed to assist the efforts at Pike River, Solid took the opportunity to conduct complete risk assessments of all procedures at Spring Creek.

Mine development restarted in late February and full coal extraction is expected to start up today.

“Spring Creek’s workforce of 200 has been fully employed throughout this time – the mine was never closed,” Bragg said yesterday.

“Our aim with the review, the resulting improvements and staff training has been to further improve the safety of this operation. The standard we are aiming for is world’s best practice.”