The processing plant at Northern Star Resources’ Super Pit gold mine has gone up in flames, but site and emergency crews were quick to contain the worst of the blaze.
At 3:36am the mill caught ignited, believed to be caused by welding works being conducted inside one of the tanks.
Workers on site snapped into action, conducting a full evacuation of the site with zero injuries, in an effort that was later praised by Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines (KCGM) management.
Kalgoorlie firefighters arrived on scene shortly after 4am and – over the course of an hour and a half – battled to extinguish the blaze. It was the biggest industrial fire they had seen since the Kalgoorlie nickel smelter burned in 2018.
A response team made up of professional and volunteer firefighters, as well as KCGM emergency personnel, were able to put out the fire at around 5:30am.
Early estimates put the damages between $500,000 and $700,000, which could easily have reached the tens of millions had the fire not been mostly contained to a single tank. Fortunately, there were no injuries.
Kalgoorlie Fire Station officer Troy Della-Costa praised response crews for their efforts.
“We contained it fairly rapidly,” he said.
“Extinguishing it took a little bit of time because the rubber just kept wanting to burn away.
“It definitely had the potential to spread, so I applaud the rapid response of my crew and the emergency response team — it all worked really well.”
The Super Pit mine is one of the largest gold deposits in Australia. The board of Northern Star Resources recently approved a $1.5 billion dollar expansion of the site’s mill, to increase production from 13 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) to 37Mtpa.
Works are due to be completed in 2026.
