The owner and operator of a Victorian gold mine has been charged following a 20-month investigation into a fatal rockfall.
Thirty people were working underground at the Ballarat Gold Mine in Mount Clear when the collapse occurred on March 13, 2024.
While 28 workers made it to safety, 37-year-old Bruthen man Kurt Hourigan was killed and 21-year-old Connor Smith was left with life-threatening injuries.
Kurt Hourigan, 37, of Bruthen, was killed in the underground rockfall at Ballarat Gold Mine. (Supplied)
At the time of the collapse, the miners were engaging in “air legging”, a potentially dangerous manual mining technique that uses a handheld drill.
Today, WorkSafe Victoria announced it had charged Victory Minerals and Carr Mining Services with failing to ensure a safe workplace.
The workplace regulator has also alleged the companies failed to supervise their workers and to ensure adequate ground supports were installed in the mine.
The matters are listed for a hearing at Ballarat Magistrates’ Court in December.
Unheeded warnings
In April 2024, the ABC revealed safety concerns from a geotechnical engineer almost a year before the rock fall.
Internal emails showed the staff member asked management not to proceed with a handheld drilling trial without “minimum” ground supports.
It was also revealed the company was concerned those ground supports were contributing to the “cost of production”.
The geotechnical engineer also confirmed he was terminated in the weeks following those internal emails.
Kurt Hourigan was killed while using the potentially dangerous “air legging” technique. (Supplied: Facebook)
Several months after the incident that killed Mr Hourigan, the general manager of the Ballarat Gold Mine, Peter Crooks, resigned.
The exact circumstances around the resignation were not made clear by the mine’s operator, Victory Minerals.
The WorkSafe charges come after Resources Victoria handed Victory Minerals two infringement notices this year.
Victory Minerals acquired the Ballarat Gold Mine after the previous owner and operator, Balmaine Gold, went into voluntary administration in 2023.
The Ballarat Gold Mine restarted operations the day after Kurt Hourigan’s body was recovered. (ABC Ballarat: Rochelle Kirkham)
Remembering a life lost
In March last year, loved ones of Kurt Hourigan remembered him as “one of nature’s true gentlemen”.
Kurt Hourigan’s mining hat had his children’s names written on the underside. (Supplied: Facebook)
A fundraiser for Mr Hourigan’s daughter referred to him as “one of a kind, a gentle giant, an absolute larrikin, an adventurer, a quirky free spirit, a true gentleman”.
“Our Kurt and his selfless and kind nature will be greatly missed.”
The Australian Workers Union and Victory Minerals have been contacted for comment.