Queensland Consolidated Acts

COAL MINING SAFETY AND HEALTH ACT 1999 - SECT 41

41 Obligations of coal mine operators

(1) A coal mine operator for a coal mine has the following obligations—

(a) to ensure the risk to coal mine workers while at the operator’s mine is at an acceptable level, including, for example, by providing and maintaining a place of work and plant in a safe state;

(b) to ensure the operator’s own safety and health and the safety and health of others is not affected by the way the operator conducts coal mining operations;

(c) not to carry out an activity at the coal mine that creates a risk to a person on an adjacent or overlapping petroleum authority if the risk is higher than an acceptable level of risk;

(d) to appoint a site senior executive for the mine;

(e) to ensure the site senior executive, or acting site senior executive, for the coal mine is located at or near the coal mine when performing the duties of the site senior executive unless—

(i) the duties require the site senior executive, or acting site senior executive, to be temporarily absent for not more than 14 days; or

(ii) the site senior executive, or acting site senior executive, is temporarily absent on leave for not more than 14 days;

(f) to ensure the site senior executive for the mine—

(i) develops and implements a safety and health management system for the mine; and

(ii) develops, implements and maintains a management structure for the mine that helps ensure the safety and health of persons at the mine;

(g) to audit and review the effectiveness and implementation of the safety and health management system to ensure the risk to persons from coal mining operations is at an acceptable level;

(h) to provide adequate resources to ensure the effectiveness and implementation of the safety and health management system.

(2) Without limiting subsection (1) , the coal mine operator has an obligation not to operate the coal mine without a safety and health management system for the mine.

(3) In this section—

"adjacent or overlapping petroleum authority" means any of the following under an Act as follows if, under that Act, its area is adjacent to, or overlaps with, the land the subject of the mining tenure under which the coal mine is operated—

(a) a petroleum authority under the Petroleum and Gas (Production and Safety) Act 2004 ;

(b) an authority to prospect, petroleum lease, or water monitoring authority, under the Petroleum Act 1923 .