I'm hearing you. I've heard the same stories before, even talk of an incident which resulted in the death of two?? miners in the past. From what I was told it's the thin Centenary Shale (carbonaceous shale) that creates the issues. Ironically it was this unit that helped with the discovery of the deposits (from what I remember) because it was easy to trace.
The stress fields along the whole of the Zulieka shear have been the subject of studies so hopefully they understand the ground well enough to keep the mine and the people safe.
I found this study from 2007 which discusses the issues of stress along the Zuleika Shear and refers to future planned studies.
Measurement of the regional and local stress field along a 10 km strike of the Zuleika Shear Zone in the Kundana gold mining province of Western Australia
"On a practical level, the individual stress measurement results along the ZSZ in the Kundana region have allowed the mine sites to plan, design and operate the mines in a safe and efficient manner."
We can only hope that the decision to re-enter these mines hasn't been taken lightly and has been taken on the best engineering advice available and they tackle the mine rehabilitation and mining responsibly and with safety as their highest priority. Esh
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