PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Gold miner Doray Minerals has restarted mining operations at its Deflector underground gold/copper mine, in Western Australia.
The miner on Friday said that mining was resumed after a thorough safety inspection of the area where a remote controlled loader had caught fire on Wednesday.
A standard re-entry of the mine was undertaken on Thursday to assess the area affected by the fire, and confirmed that there were no impediments to a safe resumption of mining activities.
“Our first priority will always be the safety of our people. The decision to resume mining was only taken because the workplace has been confirmed safe,” said Doray MD Leigh Junk.
“As unwelcome as Wednesday’s incident was, the safe and orderly resolution demonstrates the high quality of Deflector’s emergency response capabilities and Doray’s entrenched safety culture.”
The two-day interruption to underground mining is not expected to affect production from Deflector, as stockpiled ore had continued to be processed during the period.