Briefly:
A judge has fined a drilling company $385,000 after a worker was seriously injured at a remote WA research camp.
Boart Longyear is one of the largest drilling companies in the world with approximately 650 rigs operating worldwide.
What is expected next?
The company says it has implemented new safety procedures and training to prevent the incident from happening again.
One of the world’s biggest drilling companies has been fined $385,000 after a worker’s head was crushed while refitting a drilling rig at a remote mineral exploration camp in Western Australia.
US-based Boart Longyear employs approximately 6,000 workers around the globe.
Workers were assembling the rig at the West Musgrave copper-nickel project, about 1,300km northeast of Perth, when the incident occurred in February 2021.
Kalgoorlie Magistrates’ Court heard on Friday that a hydraulic rod holder, weighing around 700kg, was installed in the vertical position next to a straight mast.
When assistant driller Luke Frame tried to reconnect some hoses, the rod holder’s arm suddenly swung down and crushed his head against another piece of rig.
Mr Frame suffered head and spinal injuries, including a T12 compression fracture and a double fractured jaw, and was taken to Kalgoorlie Hospital for treatment.
Mr Frame returned to work when he recovered but was later dismissed by the company for unrelated reasons, the court heard.
Company’s admission of guilt
Lawyers for the Australian division of Boart Longyear pleaded guilty in June to a charge of failing to maintain a safe working environment.
Sentencing the company, Magistrate Paul Lyons said the fine reflected the seriousness of the incident and “cannot be repaid as a cost of doing business”.
He said Boart Longyear had only carried out a basic risk assessment and had no specific procedure in place for refitting the platform.
“He (Mr Frame) could easily have suffered more serious injuries and even been killed,” he said.
“What happened in this case was unusual with a specific series of events that was difficult but not impossible to predict.”
The rod handler is a hydraulically actuated mechanism consisting of a gripping tool and rotating “elbows”.
Mr Lyons said it was difficult to determine when the hydraulic system was “compromised”, or “when air got in”.
“Steps could have been taken by the company and field workers to mitigate the risk,” he said.
“The company says it now uses a secondary restraint … which is a somewhat obvious and easy mitigation that could have avoided the injuries sustained by Mr. Frame.”
‘Isolated’ event: Magistrates
Mr Lyons said the Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (DEMIRS) had published a major incident report in 2016 following a similar incident involving a drill rod holder.
“The importance of that report is that it stood as a warning to the accused and others working in the mining industry that this is possible and can cause significant harm,” he said.
It found that Boart Longyear’s conduct was at a “low to medium level of seriousness” with the company fully cooperating with authorities and implementing new security procedures since the incident.
He said Boart Longyear had generally shown “good compliance with safety laws” and the breach was “isolated” and “out of character”.
According to the company’s website, Boart Longyear was founded in the United States in 1890 and has about 650 drilling rigs operating worldwide.
The Utah-based company was delisted from the ASX in April this year after being acquired by US private equity firm American Industrial Partners for $371 million.