In the incident the miner was putting up mesh in a development heading when rock fell onto the mesh, pushing his arms against the timber jacks of the ABM25 bolter miner, according to the Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation’s compilation report for January.

In other incidents a rock fell through an opening between damaged roof mesh and struck two workers who were hanging poly pipe.

Another rock fall incident occurred when a slab of fibrecrete and rock weighing approximately 150kg fell from the back of an underground substation.

About 15t of rock fell from the shoulder and back of a drive at another underground operation. A supervisor was struck by fly rock from the fall which caused bruising to his shoulder and neck.

An access ramp above the endwall of an open pit slumped 20m and the pit floor heaved when approximately 700,000cu.m of the endwall slipped about 50m into the pit.

In another incident two Legra pumps installed near the crest of a highwall fell into the pit when they were undercut by a failure of approximately 11,000cu.m of ground in the highwall.