{"id":310996,"date":"2025-11-27T00:03:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T00:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/310996\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T00:03:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T00:03:10","slug":"ballarat-gold-mine-operators-charged-over-2024-rockfall-that-killed-miner-kurt-hourigan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/310996\/","title":{"rendered":"Ballarat Gold Mine operators charged over 2024 rockfall that killed miner Kurt Hourigan"},"content":{"rendered":"

The owner and operator of a Victorian gold mine has been charged following a 20-month investigation into a fatal rockfall.<\/p>\n

Thirty people were working underground at the Ballarat Gold Mine in Mount Clear when the collapse occurred on March 13, 2024.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Kurt Hourigan, 37, of Bruthen, was killed in the underground rockfall at Ballarat Gold Mine. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

At the time of the collapse, the miners were engaging in “air legging”, a potentially dangerous manual mining technique that uses a handheld drill.<\/p>\n

Today, WorkSafe Victoria announced it had charged Victory Minerals and Carr Mining Services with failing to ensure a safe workplace.<\/p>\n

The workplace regulator has also alleged the companies failed to supervise their workers and to ensure adequate ground supports were installed in the mine.<\/p>\n

The matters are listed for a hearing at Ballarat Magistrates’ Court in December.<\/p>\n

Unheeded warnings<\/p>\n

In April 2024, the ABC revealed safety concerns from a geotechnical engineer almost a year before the rock fall.<\/a><\/p>\n

Internal emails showed the staff member asked management not to proceed with a handheld drilling trial without “minimum” ground supports.<\/p>\n

It was also revealed the company was concerned those ground supports were contributing to the “cost of production”.<\/p>\n

The geotechnical engineer also confirmed he was terminated in the weeks following those internal emails.<\/p>\n

\"selfie<\/p>\n

Kurt Hourigan was killed while using the potentially dangerous “air legging” technique. (Supplied: Facebook)<\/p>\n

Several months after the incident that killed Mr Hourigan, the general manager of the Ballarat Gold Mine, Peter Crooks, resigned<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The exact circumstances around the resignation were not made clear by the mine’s operator, Victory Minerals.<\/p>\n

The WorkSafe charges come after Resources Victoria handed Victory Minerals two infringement notices this year.<\/p>\n

Victory Minerals acquired the Ballarat Gold Mine after the previous owner and operator, Balmaine Gold, went into voluntary administration in 2023.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Ballarat Gold Mine restarted operations the day after Kurt Hourigan’s body was recovered. (ABC Ballarat: Rochelle Kirkham)<\/p>\n

Remembering a life lost<\/p>\n

In March last year, loved ones of Kurt Hourigan remembered him as “one of nature’s true gentlemen”.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Kurt Hourigan’s mining hat had his children’s names written on the underside. (Supplied: Facebook)<\/p>\n

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”.<\/p>\n

“Our Kurt and his selfless and kind nature will be greatly missed.”<\/p>\n

The Australian Workers Union and Victory Minerals have been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The owner and operator of a Victorian gold mine has been charged following a 20-month investigation into a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310997,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,176236,99,53495,176238,176237],"class_list":{"0":"post-310996","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-ballarat-gold-mine","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-gold-mine","13":"tag-kurt-hourigan","14":"tag-victory-minerals"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}