Silver Lake Resources fined over Mid West gold processing plant accident

A gold producer has been fined $58,000 after a boilermaker was seriously injured when a heavy part of a jaw crusher fell on him in Western Australia’s Mid West region.

Jayden Robinson was working at Silver Lake Resources’ Tuckabianna Processing Plant, southeast of Cue, on April 17, 2014 when he suffered multiple fractures.

Mr Robinson had been conducting maintenance on a jaw crusher and used a piece of timber as a wedge as he replaced the liners, which weigh between 1.8 and 2.3 tonnes, when one of the liners fell on him.

Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety director of mines safety Andrew Chaplyn said Silver Lake should have provided the workers with a way of making sure the jaw liner did not move as they worked on it.

“One example of what could have been used was combining a work platform with lifting cams or lifting lugs which had been designed, positioned and welded to the liners properly,” he said on Tuesday.

“This was an incident that had the potential to be fatal.”