PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Diversified miner Anglo American has unveiled plans to restart operations at its Grosvenor mine, in Queensland, by the second half of 2021.

The operation was halted in May this year after five workers were injured during an explosion at the operation.

“We have made the decision to permanently seal part of the longwall panel where the methane ignition incident occurred in May. Permanent sealing provides the greatest level of safety, and will help facilitate work to prepare Grosvenor for a safe restart of operations, which is likely to be in the second half of 2021,” Anglo’s CEO of its metallurgical coal business, Tyler Mitchelson, said on Thursday.

“The decision to permanently seal the longwall area continues our step-by-step approach to working through the Grosvenor incident. Safety comes first, and we are taking the time to ensure mining does not restart until we know it is safe to do so,” he said.

Mitchelson noted that over the past two weeks, the company has installed three temporary seals in the lognwall area, which has allowed Anglo American to isolate the area of the mine where heating occurred and stablise the environment prior to permanent sealing work starting.

The company is also in the process of developing a detailed technical roadmap to safely restart mining, he said, including a detailed risk assessment process involving internal and external experts.

New longwall equipment will also be purchased, giving the company the opportunity to assess the best available technology to further expedite automation.

“As we communicated to our workforce including key contractors recently, we are continuing to review our controls to prevent a methane ignition occurring again. The pilot study to assess the use of pressure sensors to cut power to the longwall at Moranbah North is under way, and we will be reviewing all technology options to improve our controls at Grosvenor. This work will continue as more information becomes available from investigations,” Mitchelson said.