Solid Energy terminates contract at Ohai Opencast Mine

Solid Energy terminates contract at Ohai Opencast Mine

Solid Energy has terminated its contract with its contractor at Ohai Opencast Mine in Southland, following a potential high-risk health and safety incident last weekend. Nobody was hurt but safety systems were breached.

The operations at the mine were already under Solid Energy’s health and safety spotlight after the company temporarily shut down the contractor’s operations on 7 December, 2011, due to safety concerns triggered by a vehicle incident.

Solid Energy agreed to a restart of the contractor’s operations two weeks ago, following a comprehensive safety review of site activities and all mobile plant and equipment,

Solid Energy General Manager Opencast Operations, Stephen Esposito, says that the new incident at the weekend has caused the company to lose confidence in the contractor’s ability to meet its health and safety expectations.

“This is not a decision that has been taken lightly, as it is not ideal for either party,” says Mr Esposito, “but health and safety comes first and is never ever compromised by production. All work carried out on site must meet our health and safety standards or not take place at all.

“The site was operated by STRACON and Solid Energy is now considering how it will operate the site going forward. Ohai Mine is still open for coal sales and we do not expect any customer disruptions as a result of this contract termination,” Mr Esposito says.

ENDS

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