WorkSafe has released a suite of educational materials—guides and self-assessments—to help Western Australia’s mine operators manage hazards and contractors so that they are better equipped to comply with the State’s workplace health and safety laws.
A construction company has been fined $750,000 and a company director fined $45,000 over an incident in which a worker from another business was seriously injured in a fall.
CASM Construction Pty Ltd (administrators appointed) pleaded guilty to failing to ensure workers were not exposed to hazards and, by that failure, causing serious harm to a worker, and was fined in Northam Magistrates Court on Monday.
A company director also pleaded guilty to neglect as a director and was fined during the same court appearance. He was granted a spent conviction.
Quarrying services company Kimberley Quarry Pty Ltd was today fined $167,000 after a screening machine operator fell more than three metres while changing heavy screens and sustained multiple injuries, including internal bleeding, ligament damage and a spinal fracture.
Kimberley Quarry pleaded guilty in the Geraldton Magistrates Court to two offences under the Work Health and Safety Act 2020 (WA)—exposing workers to a risk of death, injury or harm to health and failing to preserve the site of a notifiable incident.
A concrete manufacturing company has been fined $580,000 (and ordered to pay $6180 in costs) after a worker was seriously injured at its Neerabup concrete batching plant.
Ransberg Pty Ltd - trading as WA Premix – pleaded guilty to failing to provide and maintain a safe workplace and, by that failure, causing serious harm to a worker, and was fined in the Joondalup Magistrates Court last week.
In December 2020, a worker at the plant suffered serious harm when a large waste pit gate fell onto him.
A hay processing company in regional WA has been fined $595,000 (and ordered to pay $5510.00 in costs) over a serious injury to a worker.
HA Hold Co Pty Ltd pleaded guilty to failing to provide and maintain a safe workplace and, by that failure, causing serious harm to a worker, and was fined in the Northam Magistrates Court on April 16.
In January 2023, a leading hand was working under a labour hire arrangement at the hay processing plant at Carani in the Wheatbelt, operating a small hay press.
A salt processing company has been fined $875,000 over the death of a worker at its North Coogee facility on June 16, 2022.
W.A.S.S. Nominees Pty Ltd pleaded guilty to failing to provide and maintain safe plant at the workplace and, by that failure, causing the death of a worker, and was fined in the Fremantle Magistrates Court last week.
The worker, an experienced plant operator, died when he was caught in the mechanism of a salt pit conveyor.
Underground mining services company Northern Star Mining Services Pty Ltd was today fined $750,000 and ordered to pay $3211 in costs after a drill operator sustained spinal and leg injuries while working on heavy machinery.
The company pleaded guilty in the Perth Magistrates Court to two offences under the Work Health and Safety Act 2020 (WA) for causing serious harm to a worker and exposing workers to the risk of death, injury or harm to health.
Dyno Nobel Asia Pacific Pty Ltd has been fined $250,000 in Perth Magistrates Court in relation to the death of one of its employees at the Telfer Gold Mine on 15 May 2015.
In handing down the penalty on 1 April 2019, the court took into account the company’s guilty plea with costs of $30,000 also ordered.
FQM Australia Nickel Pty Ltd was today fined $35,000 in the Esperance Magistrates Court after a ruptured tank spilled more than 10,000 litres of hot acidic slurry at the company’s Ravensthorpe nickel operations.
In May 2017, a field technician working on top of the processing tank had to jump across a three-metre drop to avoid the slurry that had burst through the tank’s fibreglass roof.
The spray from the mixture contacted his clothing and the skin on his lower back and face.
Mining operator fined after telehandler and load fall
FQM Australia Nickel Pty Ltd was today fined $19,000 in the Kalgoorlie Magistrates Court following an incident where a telehandler rolled over endangering two workers at the Ravensthorpe Nickel Mine on 11 January 2017.
The mining operator pleaded guilty after being charged with failing to provide a safe working environment under the Mines Safety and Inspection Act 1994 (WA).
