A temporary phone call to the surface may have saved the life of a central Queensland coal miner who worked deep underground, unaware that it had been a disastrous methane explosion.

Mining and Energy Union has revealed that the man worked at Anglo American’s Grosvenor Mine in June last year when Metan ignited and sent a bright orange flame through the area.

“In the testimony, there is a guy who left the mine … He called the surface to find out what the time was,” said mining and energy associations (MEU) Vice President Steve Smyth.

Workers in another part of the mine took a vehicle to the surface, which took an hour.

The worker eventually reached the surface and was the last person out of the mine before it was sealed.

Mr. Symth said no one was seriously injured or killed, it was a catastrophic event.

Do things differently

Grosvenor is the largest underground coal mine in Queensland’s Bowen Basin and employs more than 1,100 people.

The majority have been redistributed to other operations in the Bowen pool, without production at Grosvenor since the mine was evacuated.

In its quarterly update, Anglo American said that the production of steel manufacturing school decreased by 49 percent, mainly due to the incident on grits.

By the time of the incident, the mine had worked for just eight years with a life span of 30 years.

Several studies of the explosion in June 2024 are ongoing, including one that MEU believes is the first of its kind.

Officials have spent six months collecting and requesting documents, including recordings of gas monitoring, testimonials and security plans and procedures.

Experts from Interstate and Overseas have spent weeks review more than 90,000 data.

Mr. Smyth said he thought it was the most comprehensive investigation ever conducted in Australian mining.

The Union’s industry health and security representative, Jason Hill, said that when all the information was reviewed and the report completed, the union would decide whether the supported re-entry to the mine.

“The ultimate goal is to have an understanding of what happened and why and then develop recommendations to prevent similar incidents in the future,” he said.

Mr. Hill said that the level of cooperation from Anglo American was significant, but maintained a separate investigation was needed.

“We must have control over our own destiny. We want to be able to sit down, form our own opinions, make our own recommendations.

“It is important to be independent.”

It is expected that the report from MEU will be completed in March.

Ongoing community trauma

The explosion in 2024 revived worrying memories for workers who suffered severe burns when methane ignited in the same mine in 2020.

Julian Barnsdale represents Grosvenor Lodge, a division of MEU.

“We have still got people from the first event and there are many people (feel) worried about the situation and what happened,” Barnsdale said.

“There are a lot of people on workscover with their well -being and there will be people who will not go there again.”

The Union Health and Security Policy Manager, Annika Geraghty, said that the first accounts painted a chilly picture of what happened on the day and the ongoing impact.

What kind of grits?

The future of Grosvenor -mine remains unclear, despite significant deposits at the site.

There has been no production on site since the fire, but in recent months the crews have been slowly working to determine current conditions underground.

In a statement, Anglo American said custom -built cameras had been lowered into strategic points.

The company said that pictures showed limited damage underground and they worked for re -entry later this year.

It will only be allowed if resources security and health queensland are satisfied risks to workers’ safety are handled to an acceptable level.

Anglo American has sold its Australian steel -making coal mines to Global Miner Peabody Energy with the final sales price for grits that return to production.

Peabody has been contacted for comments.