Beaconsfield Mine collapse

2006 mining accident in Tasmania, Australia

The Beaconsfield gold mine collapsed on 25 April 2006 in Beaconsfield, Tasmania, Australia. Of the seventeen people who were in the mine at the time, fourteen escaped immediately following the collapse, one miner (Larry Knight) was killed, while the remaining two (Brant Webb and Todd Russell) were found alive on the sixth day by miners Pat Ball and Steve Saltmarsh. Webb and Russell were rescued on 9 May 2006, two weeks after being trapped nearly below the surface.

At 9:26 p. m. (Australian Eastern Standard Time) on 25 April 2006, a small earthquake triggered an underground rockfall at the Beaconsfield gold mine in northern Tasmania. Geoscience Australia said that the earthquake had a magnitude of 2.3 on the Richter scale, at a shallow depth at coordinates Earlier speculation had suggested that mine blasting had caused the collapse. Three of the miners working underground at the time were trapped, and early reports suggested that 14 miners who were underground at the time had managed to scramble to safety. The mining company, Beaconsfield Mine Joint Venture, released a press statement saying they held "grave concerns for the three miners' wellbeing". Larry Knight (44), Brant Webb (37) and Todd Russell (34) were the three miners who remained unaccounted for. Knight had been killed in the initial rockfall, but Webb and Russell were still alive, trapped in part of the vehicle in which they had been working at the time of the collapse, known as a teleloader or telehandler. They were in a basket at the end of the telehandler's arm, where they had been applying steel mesh to a barricade prior to backfilling a stope. It was initially misreported that the two miners were saved by a slab of rock that fell on top of the basket, but in a Channel 9 exclusive interview broadcast on 21 May, Webb and Russell stated that this was incorrect and that the "ceiling" above them was merely thousands of individual unstable rocks precariously packed together. The cage was partially filled with rock, and the men were partially buried under some rubble. Webb seemed to have been knocked unconscious for a short time, and Russell's lower body was completely buried. When Webb awoke, the two were able to free themselves and each other from the fallen rock by cutting through their clothes and boots, which were stuck in the rock, using Utility knives. At around 8 p. m., the body was retrieved and was identified as Larry Paul Knight, 44, of Launceston. He was the driver of the telehandler. Rescue workers did not proceed further through the rubble past the back end of the telehandler because it was unsafe, instead choosing to blast a new tunnel across from the main decline to the side tunnel, aiming to come out in front of the telehandler. On 29 April they began blasting a new tunnel, detonating at least six large explosive charges to form the tunnel. The blasts dislodged rock inside the cage of the telehandler, which Webb and Russell attempted to clear, although as the blasts came closer, rock was dislodged faster than they could clear it. Later, one rescuer found a direct route to the trapped miners, across the rubble in the side tunnel, and was able to get close enough to the basket of the telehandler to shake Russell's hand. Webb and Russell themselves did not want the rescuers to attempt to reach them through the rubble, because to do so would require them to cut through the wire on the side of the cage, which was under considerable pressure from the rock above. The two men were afraid that cutting the cage would cause it to collapse. On 1 May 2006, rescuers were still from the miners. They were also later sent a digital camera, a torch, dry clothes, magazines, iPods including music from the Foo Fighters and Kevin Bloody Wilson (upon request), deodorant and toothpaste. They also received letters from their families, and were able to write letters in return. In one letter to his wife, Russell wrote "It's not much of a room we have up here." One mine official questioned why Russell would want to look for a job, since he already had one. Russell, in a later interview, said that he had replied, "I told him to stick it up his  " Later that day it was announced that the drilling to go the final would commence within hours. At about 6:45 p. m., drilling of a 20 cm pilot hole for the raise borer commenced. Using the normal procedure for this machinery, a pilot hole was drilled, for the larger diameter borer to follow. This took more than three days to complete. According to Beaconsfield mine manager Matthew Gill, the quartz rock which was drilled through was five times harder than concrete. The drill was capable of drilling through it at per hour, but it was going much more slowly because of the danger of further rock falls, at a rate of around per hour. Drilling of the rescue tunnel commenced on Thursday 4 May at about 8 p. m. guided by the completed pilot hole. It was gouged out to and was planned to come up underneath the men's cage after passing through of rock. The last phase was to involve a miner using hand tools to create an opening whilst lying on his back. As at 7 a. m. on Saturday 6 May the raise borer had drilled about of the rescue tunnel. The mine decided on the shortened route late on Friday night. The major drilling operation was completed by 6 p. m. on Saturday, with only a few metres remaining to reach the trapped miners. Several hours work dismantling and removing the boring machine from the escape tunnel were required before the final phase of the rescue commenced. On 7 May the rescuers reached a belt of hard rock that they found difficult to penetrate. As the jack hammers they were using had little effect, they reverted to using low impact charges. On 8 May the horizontal tunnel was completed, with rescuers beginning tunnelling upwards in the short vertical tunnel, since the horizontal tunnel had been dug lower than the level of the miners. At about 9:30 p. m. a probe passed through the rock below where the miners were located, which indicated there was only between them, including of hard rock. After 14 nights, at 4:27 a. m., rescuers Glenn Burns, Donovan Lightfoot and Royce Gill finally reached the men, one of them yelling "I can see your light" when he broke through the ground which was separating him from the miners, to which the miners replied "I can see your light too". Brant Webb was freed at 4:47 a. m. on 9 May, followed by Todd Russell at 4:54 a. m. They were driven up the spiral decline of the mine, arriving at a medical station at the base of the vertical shaft from the surface at about 5:30 a. m. They were checked by a doctor, and then sent up the lift towards the surface. About from the surface, they got out of their wheelchairs, which were moved to the rear of the lift so as to be out of sight. Both were then transported to Launceston General Hospital in nearby Launceston just after 6 a. m. local time. Russell had an injured knee, and a damaged vertebra which put pressure on his sciatic nerve, while Webb had injuries to both knees, several vertebrae, and his neck. Some comedians joked at the time that the reason why the rescue took so long was because cables and wires being used by broadcasters at the site were blocking the path. The then Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard, said his message to the miners would be "Everybody is with you, mate". On the afternoon of 7 May, journalist Richard Carleton suffered a heart attack at a press conference while at the mine. He was transported to hospital, before being pronounced dead by a doctor. Less than six hours after they were rescued, Todd Russell joined more than a thousand mourners at Larry Knight's funeral. The funeral had been postponed several times in the hope that both rescued miners could attend, before finally settling on Tuesday 9 May. Russell attended after being discharged from Launceston General Hospital in time. When Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters heard of the miners' request to have the band's music sent down on MP3 players, he issued a personal message via fax to them indicating he would meet them for a beer. Grohl's note read, in part, "Though I'm halfway around the world right now, my heart is with you both, and I want you to know that when you come home, there's two tickets to any Foos show, anywhere, and two cold beers waiting for you. Deal?" In October 2006, one of the miners took up his offer, joining Grohl for a drink after the Foo Fighters' acoustic concert at the Sydney Opera House. Since then, Foo Fighters have written an instrumental tribute song called "Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners", appearing on their 2007 album Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace. Following a meeting the Australian Workers' Union held with the miners from Beaconsfield on 15 May, they reported that no miner could be found who had been given workplace safety training, miners were unhappy with reductions in the amount of cement used to close in exploited parts of the mine, supports had been removed from lower parts of the mine, and mesh intended to prevent rock collapse was known to be ineffective.