A co-worker and friend of a man who died in a mudslide at the Mount Lyell copper mine in 2014 has detailed the immediate aftermath of the incident to a coronial inquest.
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Michael Welsh was killed while operating a bogger in January 2014, after the vehicle was inundated with 1500 cubic metres of mud, rocks and water.
Mr Welsh was employed by Barminco, who had been a contractor at the mine from September 2013 onwards.
Copper Mines Tasmania, the owner, would give Barminco mine specifications which would determine the company’s ore production.
The inquest is also examining the deaths of Alistair Lucas and Craig Gleeson, who fell through a wooden platform at the mine in 2013.
Michael Barnett, a bogger operator under the employ of Barminco at Mount Lyell at the time of Mr Welsh’s death, told Coroner Simon Cooper that his co-worker was a “very experienced” bogger operator.
Mr Barnett said the transverse drive where Mr Welsh died contained wet dirt, making it difficult for the draw-point for ore to fire.
“You could see they’d had trouble getting it to stand and it wasn’t going to be easy,” Mr Barnett said.
On the day he died, Mr Welsh, who normally worked on another level of the mine, came down to assist with getting TD-14 to stand.
The risk level in TD-14 had recently been raised from a monitoring level to a medium level.
That morning, Mr Barnett and Mr Welsh descended the mine together in a troop carrier.
Mr Barnett informed his co-worker of the troubles plaguing TD-14, before the pair parted ways.
After bogging for an hour in another area, Mr Barnett heard a call come through on his radio.
He told the inquest he did not hear Mr Welsh respond to the call so eventually he himself responded.
When Mr Barnett’s work brought him within view of TD-14, he said he could see a heap of mud that was not there when he last saw the transverse drive.
Mr Barnett then turned all the lights off in his bogger so as to look for the lights of Mr Welsh’s vehicle.
When he could not see anything, he made an emergency call.
Another co-worker of Mr Barnett’s was present at the time, who told him they would have to start digging for Mr Welsh.
“I didn’t want to hurt him [Mr Welsh],” Mr Barnett told Mr Cooper.
Also present at the inquest on Wednesday was Cameron Schultz, who was a project engineer with Barminco in 2014.
He told Mr Cooper that CMT and Barminco had a “strong focus” on safety.
The inquest continues on Thursday.
