A coronial inquest into the death of a central Queensland miner who suffocated on lethal gas has found operator Anglo American’s record keeping was “grossly deficient” and his death could have been avoided.
Key points:
- Father-of-two Paul McGuire died after accessing an underground area filled with methane
- Coroner David O’Connell found failures in the mine’s job card system
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Six coal miners and two quarry workers have been killed on Queensland mine sites since 2018
The company was at the centre of another major incident earlier this month, when five workers were injured in an underground explosion at its Grosvenor mine, which is also in the Bowen Basin.
Electrician Paul McGuire was sent to an underground area of the Grasstree coal mine near Middlemount in May 2014 to calibrate a gas monitor.
But the mine’s electronic job card system sent the 34-year-old to an out-of-date location.
An inquest held in Mackay in February heard that Mr McGuire opened a hatch to the sealed room and suffocated on methane gas in a disused area known as a “goaf”.
The father-of-two died almost instantly.
