Everything about the Beaconsfield Mine Collapse totally explained
The
Beaconsfield Mine collapse occurred on
25 April 2006 in
Beaconsfield,
Tasmania,
Australia. Of the 17 people who were in the mine at the time, 14 escaped immediately following the collapse, one was killed, and the remaining two were found alive after two weeks, using a remote controlled device. These two miners were rescued on Tuesday
9 May, a full two weeks after being trapped nearly a
kilometre below the surface.
Mine collapse
At 9:26 pm (
Australian Eastern Standard Time) on
25 April 2006 a seismic event triggered an underground rock fall at the Beaconsfield gold mine in northern Tasmania.
Geoscience Australia said that the earthquake had a magnitude of 2.2, at a shallow depth at coordinates . Earlier speculation had suggested that mine blasting had caused the collapse. Three of the miners working underground at the time were trapped, and early reports suggested that 14 miners who were underground at the time had managed to scramble to safety. The mining company, Beaconsfield Gold Mine Joint Venture, released a press statement saying they held "grave concerns for [thethree miners'] wellbeing".
Larry Knight (44),
Brant Webb (37) and
Todd Russell (34), were the three miners who remained unaccounted for. Knight had been killed in the initial rockfall, but Webb and Russell were still alive, trapped in part of the vehicle in which they'd been working at the time of the collapse, known as a
teleloader or telehandler. They were in a basket at the end of the telehandler's arm, where they'd been applying steel mesh to the walls of the tunnel, in order to prevent rockfalls. It was initially misreported that the two miners were saved by a slab of rock that fell on top of the basket, however in a Channel 9 exclusive interview broadcast on
21 May Webb and Russell stated that this was incorrect and that the "ceiling" above them was merely thousands of individual unstable rocks precariously packed together.
The cage was partially filled with rock, and the men were partially buried under some rubble. Webb seemed to have been knocked unconscious for a short time, and Russell's lower body was completely buried. At around 8pm, the body was retrieved and was identified as the body of
Larry Paul Knight, 44, of
Launceston. He was the driver of the telehandler.
Rescue workers didn't proceed further through the rubble past the back end of the telehandler because it was unsafe, instead choosing to blast a new tunnel across from the main shaft to the side shaft, aiming to come out in front of the telehandler. On
29 April they began blasting a new tunnel, detonating at least six large explosive charges to form the tunnel. The blasts dislodged rock inside the cage of the telehandler, which Webb and Russell attempted to clear, although as the blasts came closer, rock was dislodged faster than they could clear it. One rescuer found a direct route to the trapped miners, across the rubble in the side shaft, and was able to get close enough to the basket of the telehandler to shake Russell's hand. Webb and Russell themselves didn't want the rescuers to attempt to reach them through the rubble, because to do so would require them to cut through the wire on the side of the cage, which was under considerable pressure from the rock above. The two men were afraid that cutting the cage would cause it to collapse.
On
1 May 2006 rescuers were still 12 metres from the miners. They were also later sent a
digital camera, a
torch, dry
clothes,
magazines,
iPods including music from the
Foo Fighters (upon request),
deodorant and
toothpaste. They also received letters from their families, and were able to write letters in return. In one letter to his wife, Russell wrote "It's not much of a room we've up here." One mine official questioned why Russell would want to look for a job, since he already had one. Russell, in a later interview, said that he'd replied, "I told him to stick it up his..." Later that day it was announced that the drilling to go the final 12 metres would commence within hours.. At about 6:45pm, drilling of a 20cm pilot hole for the
raise borer commenced. Using the normal procedure for this machinery, a pilot hole was drilled, for the larger diameter borer to follow. This took more than three days to complete. According to Beaconsfield mine manager Matthew Gill, the
quartz rock which was drilled through was 5 times harder than concrete. The drill was capable of drilling through it at 1 metre per hour, but it was going much more slowly because of the danger of further rock falls, at a rate of around 460 millimetres per hour.
Low-impact explosives were inserted into approximately 50 small holes that were drilled into the last section of rock. Drilling of the rescue tunnel commenced on Thursday
4 May at about 8:00pm guided by the completed pilot hole. It was gouged out to one metre and was planned to come up underneath the men's cage after passing through 16 metres of rock.. The last phase was to involve a miner using hand tools to create an opening whilst lying on his back.
As at 7:00 am on Saturday
6 May the raise borer had drilled about 11 metres of the 14.5 metre rescue tunnel. The mine decided on the shortened route late on Friday night. The major drilling operation was completed by 6:00pm on Saturday, with only a few metres remaining to reach the trapped miners. Several hours work dismantling and removing the boring machine from the escape tunnel were required before the final phase of the rescue commenced.
On
7 May the rescuers reached a belt of hard rock that they found hard to penetrate. As the diamond-edged chainsaws they were using had little effect, they reverted to using low-impact charges. On
8 May the horizontal tunnel was completed, with rescuers beginning tunnelling upwards in the short vertical tunnel, since the horizontal tunnel had been dug lower than the level of the miners. At about 9:30pm a probe passed through the rock below where the miners were located, which indicated there was only a metre between them, including 400 millimetres of hard rock.
After 14 nights, at 4:27 am, rescuers Glenn Burns, Donovan Lightfoot and Royce Gill finally reached the men, one of them yelling "I can see your light" when he broke through the ground which was separating him from the miners, to which the miners replied "I can see your light too". Brant Webb was freed at 4:47am on
9 May, followed by Todd Russell at 4:54 am. They were driven up the spiral shaft of the mine, arriving at a medical station at the base of the vertical shaft from the surface at about 5:30 am. They were checked by a doctor, and then sent up the lift towards the surface. About thirty metres from the surface, they got out of their
wheelchairs, which were moved to the rear of the lift so as to be out of sight. Both were then transported to
Launceston General Hospital in nearby
Launceston just after 6:00 am local time. Russell had an injured knee, and a damaged vertebra which put pressure on his
sciatic nerve, while Webb had injuries to both knees, several vertebra and his neck.
Australian Opposition Leader
Kim Beazley, at a
May Day march in
Brisbane, associated the mining accident with the government's new
industrial relations legislation, after which
Kevin Andrews called on him to apologise for politicising the incident. then Australian Prime Minister,
John Howard said his message to the miners would be "Everybody is with you, mate".
On the afternoon of
7 May prominent Australian journalist
Richard Carleton suffered a
heart attack at a press conference while at the mine. He was transported to hospital, before being pronounced dead by a doctor.
Less than six hours after they were rescued, Todd Russell joined more than a thousand mourners at Larry Knight's
funeral. The funeral had been postponed constantly in the hope that both rescued miners could attend, before finally settling on Tuesday
9 May at 1:00pm. Russell attended after being discharged from
Launceston General Hospital in time.
When
Dave Grohl of the
Foo Fighters heard of the miners' request to have the band's music sent down on MP3 players, he issued a personal message via fax to them indicating he'd meet them for a beer.
Grohl's note read, in part, "Though I'm halfway around the world right now, my heart is with you both, and I want you to know that when you come home, there's two tickets to any Foos show, anywhere, and two cold beers waiting for yous. Deal?" In October 2006, one of the miners took up his offer, joining Grohl for a drink after the Foo Fighters acoustic concert at the Sydney Opera House. Since then, Foo Fighters have written an instrumental tribute song called "
Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners" appearing on the album
Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace.
Following a meeting the
Australian Workers' Union held with the miners from Beaconsfield on
15 May they reported that no miner could be found who had been given workplace safety training, miners were unhappy with reductions in the amount of cement used to close in exploited parts of the mine, supports had been removed from lower parts of the mine and mesh intended to prevent rock collapse was known to be ineffective.
Media interest
Interest in gaining
media deals with both survivors culminated with
Oprah Winfrey's production company
Harpo expressing interest. Interest from the
United States was particularly strong given two January 2006 mining disasters in
West Virginia (see:
Sago Mine disaster and
Aracoma Alma Mine accident) which resulted in the deaths of 15 miners.
Ten News reported that the survivors were offered $3 million each, and
Channel Nine boss
Eddie McGuire attended the pub where the residents of Beaconsfield were celebrating the rescue. During
The Footy Show, they crossed live to a special event held in Beaconsfield where both miners appeared and were questioned by McGuire. The
Daily Telegraph revealed that the Nine Network secured a deal for $2.6 million, for a 2-hour special on the night of Sunday
May 21 entitled "The Great Escape". News reports said the miners told Kim Beazley (who visited them) some details about their ordeal, but they were kept "private", disguising the real reason behind the secrecy.
The story was extended by the continued stream of media reports detailing the ordeal, such as
Enough Rope with Andrew Denton's interview with one of the rescuers
Paul Featherstone. Together with an Adelaide band, Unitopia, they've recorded a
single,
321 Hours, with their wives.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Beaconsfield Mine Collapse'.
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