Mining company fined £3.6m after electricians suffer severe burns in two separate incidents

The owners of Boulby Mine in Saltburn have been fined after two electricians suffered severe burns in two separate incidents.

The mining company were fined £3.6 million and ordered to pay costs of £185,000 after an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).  The mine is owned by Cleveland Potash Ltd, which extracts organic fertiliser known as Polyhalite.

On the 3 August 2016 a contract electrician received serious burns from an 11,000-volt electrical system after he unknowingly placed a vacuum cleaner nozzle into a live electrical chamber. An air ambulance lifted the casualty to Newcastle hospital specialist burns unit, where he was put into an induced coma for 10 days.

On the 12^th February 2019, another contractor made contact with a live conductor on a 415-volt electrical system during electrical testing works, and sustained serious burns. He was hospitalised for six days.

Teesside Crown court was told that investigators found deficiencies from the owner of the mine in risk assessment, planning of works, and shortfalls in providing warnings about which parts of the electrical systems the two electricians were working on remained live.

HSE specialist regulatory principal inspector Paul Bradley said: “These serious electrical incidents were easily preventable. CPL should have had a heightened awareness of electrical risks following the first incident in 2016, however failures to apply learnings and to adequately control risks resulted in the 2019 incident”.

The owners of the mine, Cleveland Potash Limited (CPL) pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2 (1) and two counts of Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

“Employers should make sure they properly assess and apply effective control measures to minimise risks when working on electrical systems. Both these incidents were preventable if long established electrical safety practices been applied.”