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Worker fatality delivers pay cut for mining boss

Prominent Hill underground mine
Prominent Hill underground mine (Courtesy OZ Minerals)

Management at a modern resources company paid for a workplace tragedy.

OZ Minerals confirmed its chief executive lost nearly 40 per cent of his short-term incentive (STI) award due to a recent fatality at the Prominent Hill mine in Mount Eba, 136km southeast of Coober Pedy. The STI reduction equates to almost a $598,500 loss of income to just $897,750.

Andrew Cole’s company key performance indicator decreased 75.9 per cent to zero to reflect the Prominent Hill fatality. This gave him an overall performance outcome of 59.9 per cent.

The reduction came about six months after an underground Byrnecut Group employee died on the job back in September 2021. Operations were suspended until the proponent, South Australia Police and SafeWork SA completed their investigations.

“Despite our best efforts to ensure that every member of our workforce returns home safely, an underground Byrnecut worker was fatally injured while working at our Prominent Hill mine,” the company’s latest annual and sustainability report said.

“The incident had a profound impact on the family of the worker and our workforce. We worked with Byrnecut Mining and relevant authorities to conduct investigations of the incident and will share our learnings.”

OZ Minerals’ safety frequency rate (with a total recordable injury frequency rate) decreased 29 per cent to 3.77 during 2021 compared to the prior year.

Muscular stress-related sprains and strains caused between 30 and 40 per cent of workplace injuries. The employer has already implemented a critical risk-management program to increase employee awareness and minimise the frequency of such incidents.

No employee or contractor fatalities were recorded in 2020.

Click here to download the full report.

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