Detailed in the Queensland Mines Inspectorate’s accidents and high potential incidents compilation report for the month, rock fell from the top of the face as a worker was charging the backholes from height in a charge basket.

A female miner was on the ground uncovering the lifters (bottom row of holes to shotfire) at the time and was struck by the falling rock which tumbled off the side of the basket.

“She sustained a head injury and severe arm injury which resulted in her right arm being amputated below the elbow,” the inspectorate said.

There were a couple of unfortunate incidents at undisclosed longwall faces in the state.

One miner was floored when coal spalled from the face and struck him in the back.

In the other incident, a fair size lump of coal flicked off the shearer drum and struck the foot of the shearer operator as he was cutting into the tailgate.

Another underground coal incident might warrant some investigation into uniforms.

“A worker’s shirt sleeve became entangled in a drill steel when he tried to reseat it into the spinning chuck of a bolting rig on a continuous miner,” the inspectorate said.

“Two of his fingers were dislocated.”

Like in the previous month, there were a couple of notable incidents with shuttle cars.

The cable of one shuttle car pulled apart after it failed to release from a shoe, which caused an arc flash.

During maintenance efforts on a shuttle car traction fault, the inspectorate said a flash was seen through the viewing window inside the main contactor enclosure and the “fire” self extinguished after a short time.

There were several unusual incidents at open cut mines, but there was one unanticipated event at the surface of an underground mine.

While a dozer was skimming vegetation from a road surface it managed to dig up a mine’s 240 volt PED cable, tripping this internal communications system.

There were several collision incidents at open cut mines and some near-misses.

However, one empty Terex MT700 dump truck reversed into another one that was loaded as the loaded truck stopped unexpectedly at a shovel face.

The inspectorate said the operator of the loaded truck couldn’t warn the empty truck reversing his way, as the other operator had left his radio on the workshop channel.

In a serious falling accident an operator of a Komatsu 630E dump truck lost control while climbing down the access stairs.

The fall knocked him unconscious and fractured vertebra in his neck.

While cleaning spoil off the top of a coal bench, the inspectorate said, the fractured coal underneath a dozer “gave way”

The dozer slid off the bench and then rolled over before landing back on its tracks in this incident.

The operator was knocked out and sustained head and pelvic injuries.

A Cat 651 scraper also rolled over on its roof when it went over the edge of a 4 metre dump access ramp, but no injury was reported with this incident.

Open cut mines in the state have been under more scrutiny over blast fumes in recent months.

In April one coal mine produced a level 4 fume caused from an overburden blast.

“The fume cloud travelled about 8 kilometres and passed over a nearby town,” the inspectorate said.

Overall there were 162 serious accidents and high potential incidents in April, up from 155 in the previous month and above the growing 12 month rolling average of 142.

However, the recent tally was down on the 189 notched up in February as mines were troubled with wet conditions.