Contractor fined $350,000 over tyre blast that knocked worker unconscious at stalled Beyondie potash project

A business contracted to the Beyondie potash mine has been pinged $350,000 after a tyre exploded and knocked a man unconscious. K19 Mining Pty Ltd pleaded guilty in the South Hedland Magistrates Court on Thursday to failing to ensure the safety of a worker and causing serious harm under the Work Health and Safety Act. The man had been in the line of fire while inflating a tyre on an access road near the potash site 160km south-east of Newman in July 2022. The tyre exploded, propelling the worker backwards and knocked him unconscious for four minutes. He later had surgery and suffered nerve damage and hearing loss. In its statement on Friday, WorkSafe said the injured man and his colleague didn’t do a job hazard analysis before fixing the tyre, and K19 Mining hadn’t provided the injured man with any training before the incident beyond a basic site induction. WorkSafe Commissioner Sally North said it was common industry knowledge that a tyre explosion can result in a sudden release of stored energy known as a percussive blast, and said the worker was lucky to be alive. “Workers should not be in the line of fire when reinflating tyres and should be using tyre cages in a controlled environment. There are a number of measures K19 Mining could have taken to significantly reduce the risk to the workers.” K19 Mining Pty Ltd is a private company that had been engaged by then-mine owner Kalium Lakes — a listed potash hopeful that went into administration in August 2023 — to provide harvest and haulage services from the operation. Kalium disclosed in a September quarter update in 2022 that K19 Mining Pty Ltd was related to Brent Smoothy who was also a non-executive director at Kalium at the time. K19 was paid $2 million by Kalium during that quarter for the services. ASX-listed Kalium collapsed in August 2023 owing more than $200m to lenders, including NAIF.