News

A man has died in a workplace accident at the OZ Minerals mine at Prominent Hill in South Australia’s far north.

Police said the 43-year-old from Aberfoyle Park in Adelaide’s south was crushed by machinery and died at the scene.

Emergency services were called to the site about 3:25 pm on Sunday.

Police said local detectives and forensic investigators attended the scene.

A report will be prepared for the state coroner.

The OZ Minerals mine is located about 650 kilometres north-west of Adelaide and 130 kilometres south-east of Coober Pedy.

The copper and gold operation includes both an open pit and an underground mine.

The fly-in, the fly-out site also includes a processing plant.

Mineral Resources Minister Dan van Holst Pellekaan expressed condolences to the man’s loved ones.

“My heart goes out to the family and friends of the person who has passed away and, of course, think about the people on site who would have found this person at work underground and who would have been closely involved in trying to save his life,” he said.

“This is very sad, very serious and I know all of the workers and everybody in the company take it incredibly seriously and will do everything they can to discover what went wrong.”

The Oz Minerals mine is about 130 kilometres southeast of Coober Pedy. (Supplied: Oz Minerals)

Oz Minerals’ managing director and chief executive officer Andrew Cole said site operations at Prominent Hill had been temporarily suspended.

“Byrnecut and OZ Minerals express our deepest sympathies to the worker’s family,” he said in a statement.

“This incident has had a profound impact on our workforce and our priority is to ensure the safety and well-being of everyone at the site.

“Byrnecut and OZ Minerals are providing support to the worker’s family during this very difficult time.”

The incident is being investigated by the South Australian Police and Safework SA.

A Safework SA spokesperson said further information would not be released at this time.