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Anglo American close to reopening Grosvenor Coal Mine one year after explosion
Anglo American is in the "final stages" of preparation to re-enter the underground Grosvenor Mine in central Queensland after it exploded in June last year.
Sunday will mark one year since the steelmaking coal mine was evacuated due to a methane gas ignition.
A similar explosion at the same mine injured five workers in 2020.
Grosvenor Mine technical assurance manager Wesley Noble said work was still underway to remove material that filled underground shafts.
Work to re-enter the mine has included new ways to remotely measure conditions underground without reintroducing oxygen that could trigger another fire.
Mr Noble said a laser sensor was one tool repurposed to conduct damage assessments.
"What we were able to do is utilise that technology in a different way, to put it down a borehole [and] actually map the underground workings from the surface," he said.
Grosvenor Mine general manager Shane McDowall said drones had also been used for thermal imaging, methane detection and aerial damage assessment.
"Our focus now turns to safely re-ventilating the underground environment, a critical step that will allow our teams to return underground, carry out visual inspections and continue our readiness activities," Mr McDowall said.
Resources Health and Safety Queensland (RHSQ) confirmed it was monitoring Grosvenor Mine's progress, and it was "close to achieving its first phase of re-entry".
The industry watchdog had also allowed Anglo American to enter its Moranbah North mine, which closed after an ignition in late March.
A RSHQ spokesperson said a "staged approach" to re-entry had allowed the mining company to begin constructing underground roads on the site.
The Mining and Energy Union placed a directive on Anglo American to stop members from entering the Grosvenor Mine.
The union's industry health and safety representative, Jason Hill, said he would withdraw the instruction when there was an "acceptable level of risk" at the site.
Grosvenor is the largest underground coal mine in Queensland's Bowen Basin and had a workforce of about 850 permanent workers and contractors.
Anglo American redeployed many workers, but the suspension of operations at neighbouring Moranbah North mine has thrown doubt over long-term job stability.
"There are some feelings of insecurity [for workers] and getting this step forward and getting people back underground will provide some security," Mr Hill said.
"A lot of the miners that come from Grosvenor … what I'm hearing, and what I've been told, want to go back."
In November 2024, Peabody Energy entered a $5.7 billion deal to acquire Anglo American's four steelmaking coal mines in Queensland.
The resumption of longwall mining at Grosvenor is a condition of the final sale price to the mining giant.
In a statement, Peabody said it was continuing to "evaluate whether there is a viable path forward that reflects a revised structure and value".
The company said it reserved all rights under acquisition agreements to back out of the deal if a change in price was not agreed upon by August.
At nearby Moranbah North mine, a canary-yellow robot dog has been trialled to test if the four-legged computer could take images underground.
Anglo American said no decision had been made on whether the technology would be used in Grosvenor Mine.
University of Queensland Professor Mohsen Yahyaei said the dog, known as "Spot", had become a popular tool in the industry.
"I've seen many cases that actually people have been using them for maintenance and inspections," he said.
"You can install these sniffer sensors, and they can actually take the air sample and measure the quality."
Mr Yahyaei believed robots like "Spot", which could operate on artificial intelligence or be controlled remotely by humans, were key to reducing risk in the resources industry.
"You remove the human being from those hazardous environments, and therefore you improve the safety aspect and even the work quality as well," he said.
