Following an injury to an employee in the early hours of Wednesday, the mine suspended face work, alerted the Ministry’s High Hazards Unit and began an investigation of the incident and a review of all relevant operating procedures and job safety checklists relating to development operations at the mine.

The injured mineworker was a member of a team installing roof supports in a recently formed underground tunnel area when the incident occurred.

Inspectors from the HHU visited the mine later in the day and issued a prohibition on further development.

A representative of the Canterbury District Health Board said the injured mineworker’s condition is now “fairly comfortable.”

“Spring Creek Mine is now back to full operation,” the company said in a statement. “The workforce has been fully employed throughout this period. The mine’s main current effort is in developing a new underground resource block and installing the infrastructure needed to mine and transport coal from the new block.”

A protracted development phase for Spring Creek contributed to an 8% plunge in production for Solid Energy in the June quarter to 936,000 tonnes.

Production at Spring Creek mine for the year was down 40% at 240,000t with last coal being extracted in January 2012 as the mine develops the next five-year extraction block.