MOUNT Isa Police Inspector Trevor Kidd said the recovery operation for missing miner Brett Kelly will be challenging, as it is believed he has fallen into an ore pass.
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The ore pass is believed to contain about 100,000 tonnes of copper ore and is too dangerous for people to climb into, Insp Kidd said.
“It’s extremely dangerous, we can’t send people down,” Insp Kidd said.
But police and Glencore employees would not give up on retrieving Mr Kelly.
“We’re still doing everything humanly possible to go about it,” he said.
An ore pass is a shaft in which rock is tipped into through multiple entry points at various levels of the mine.
The rock is crushed into ore at the lowest level of the mine and passed along conveyor belts.
Insp Kidd said the machinery crushing the ore was stopped when Mr Kelly was reported missing 3.30pm last Wednesday.
The search and rescue operation to find Mr Kelly became a recovery operation on Friday, which means police no longer believe he will be found alive.
Insp Kidd said the decision to change the nature of the operation was made after medical specialists advised on Mr Kelly’s chance of surviving in the ore pass over a period of time.
Police officers, Glencore employees and the Queensland Mining and Safety Mining Inspectorate are discussing alternative ways to retrieve Mr Kelly’s body.
Insp Kidd said other fatalities have happened in the underground mine at Mount Isa, but bodies were found because there were signs of mechanical or ground disturbances.
“They know what happened, that’s where this is different,” Insp Kidd said.
MINES inspectors have begun a formal investigation into the disappearance of Brett Kelly.
A Department of Natural Resources and Mines spokesman said a departmental investigation team is on the Mount Isa Mines site and is being led by two senior mines inspectors and a principal investigator.
“The investigation team will work with the police and company to investigate the circumstances surrounding the miner’s disappearance and prepare a report for the Coroner,” the spokesman said.
“Police have released parts of the mine’s underground workings associated with the disappearance of the miner to allow the investigation to start.”
The spokesman said the Queensland Government mines inspectors were working with Mount Isa Mines and police to develop safe options for the recovery phase of the operation
