Over the past few years, there have been hundreds of incidents involving falling objects across Queensland’s resources industry, according to data from Resources Safety and Health Queensland (RSHQ).
Since July 2023, there have been more than 300 of those incidents across coal mines, mineral mines, quarries and petroleum and gas sites. RSHQ issued a Safety Alert to the industry, alerting them to the increase in incidents.
In 2025 alone, 141 drop zone incidents have been recorded in comparison to 113 in 2024.
RSHQ Chief Executive Rob Djukic says while most people avoided injury, there is a serious risk of harm or death.
“In one instance, a dragline fan motor fell almost 8m from a warehouse pallet racking, hitting a forklift and only just missing a worker,” Djukic says.
“The worker was lucky to escape injury.
“In another instance at a coal mine, a lifting point inside a ventilation fan was being used to suspend a shaft but the lift point failed allowing the shaft to fall, hitting a worker’s leg and causing an ankle injury.”
SafeWork Australia reports that the mining industry has recorded five workplace facilities this year out of 151 workplace deaths across all sectors in the country.
In 2024, 11 deaths occurred in mining, ranking as the fourth highest fatality rate, compared to the transport, postal, and warehousing industry ranking the highest last year with 53 deaths last year.
This news comes after Polymetals reported two two deaths from an explosion at its Endeavor Mine in October 2025. The explosion happened around 700m underground at 3am AEDT ahead of shot firing operations as a secondary detonation activity.
Resources Safety and Health Queensland is the independent safety and health regulator across Queensland’s mining, quarrying, explosives, petroleum and gas industries.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: RSHQ
