Report - Coal - gas or dust explosion - February 2025 to August 2025

This report provides the findings of an assessment program at underground coal mines focussing on the principal hazard fire or explosion management plan and uncontrolled gas or dust explosion (Grosvenor mine fire review).

Sector	Coal underground
Principal hazard	Fire or explosion
Topic	Uncontrolled gas or dust explosion (Grosvenor mine fire review)

Sector

Coal underground

Principal hazard

Fire or explosion

Topic

Uncontrolled gas or dust explosion

(Grosvenor mine fire review)

Operation type assessed

Operation type	Number of mines assessed
Underground	10
Total	10

Compliance notice types issued during the program

Notice type	Notices issued	Percentage of notices issued
WHS(MPS)A s23 notice of concerns	8	36%
WHSA s191 improvement notice	14	64%
WHSA s195 prohibition notice	0	0%
Total	22	100%

Note: This data represents all notices issued during the program, and may include notices other than for inundation or inrush of substances

Criteria assessed

Criteria group	Criteria
Prevention	Gas monitoring Ventilation
Ignition source	Frictional ignition Polymerics Spontaneous combustion
Incident management	Incident management
Mitigating	Mine sealing
Post incident monitoring	Post incident monitoring

Findings with issues identified - underground

Criteria group	Findings of concern	Findings of contravention	Total findings of issue
Prevention - gas monitoring	7	2	9
Prevention - ventilation	0	0	0
Ignition sources - frictional ignition	0	0	0
Ignition sources – polymerics	0	0	0
Ignition sources – spontaneous combustion	0	2	2
Incident management	2	0	2
Mitigating – mine sealing	17	25	42
Post incident monitoring	6	3	9
Total findings with issues	32	32	64

Recommendations

Operators of underground coal mines should review their site principal hazard fire or explosion management plan and the criteria assessed for the topic of uncontrolled gas or dust explosion with specific focus on:

Control room procedures reviewed for implementation of monitoring, responding to and reporting gas alarms
Monitoring tube bundle sample location review for potential ventilation contamination to enable monitoring of discrete areas of the mine and the overall mine ventilation system during an emergency event
Review storage locations of flammable liquids and gas bottles at ventilation shafts in the event of an emergency
Spontaneous combustion management plan and trigger action response protocols (TARP) procedures updated for current spontaneous combustion propensity testing and gas evolution testing results
Second means of egress roadways, lifelines and other escape-ways to be regularly inspected and maintained in a fit for purpose state of repair
Mine sealing procedure review:
- To ensure up to date modelling of the sequence of panel and entire mine sealing and the potential exposure of mine workers to blast zones during sealing operations
- For potential secondary explosion and over pressure effects on seals, borehole sampling points and safety of persons required to inspect and take gas samples from seals and borehole sampling points
Mine sealing methods to be reviewed to ensure the equipment documented in emergency plans is readily available for deployment at the mine
Supervisors and mine worker training and information updated for the implementation of the mine emergency response and mine sealing procedures in the event of a fire or explosion emergency
Site emergency response and sealing training programs to consider inclusion of representatives from external emergency response agencies for site familiarisation