Boulby mine fined £3.6m over health and safety breaches

Workers were injured at Boulby potash mine in 2016 and 2019

Operators of a potash mine have been fined £3.6m after two electricians suffered severe burns years apart.

Cleveland Potash Ltd, which runs the mine at Boulby near Loftus, admitted two health and safety breaches following arc flashes in 2016 and 2019.

The firm was also ordered to pay £185,000 court costs at Teesside Crown Court.

A company spokesman said the firm "deeply regretted" the injuries and "important lessons" had been learned.

He said "significant actions" had been taken to create a "robust and safe working environment" to "avoid any repeat of such incidents".

The prosecution was brought by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) who said the workers "suffered severe burns".

A spokesman said the first was injured on 3 August 2016 when he "unknowingly placed a vacuum cleaner nozzle" into a live 11,000-volt electrical chamber.

'Easily preventable'

He had to be airlifted to a specialist burns unit in Newcastle where he was placed in an induced coma for 10 days, the spokesman added.

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

The HSE said it 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 inspector Paul Bradley said Cleveland Potash failed to learn from the 2016 incident, adding: "These serious electrical incidents were easily preventable."

'Significant failings'

Ordering the fine and costs to be paid within 28 days, His Honour Judge Jonathan Carroll said it was "simply a matter of chance" neither of the victims had been killed.

He said the first man suffered "very severe burns" to 20% of his body focused on his head, face, arms and hands and his "ongoing disfigurement, pain and disability is likely to be permanent".

The judge said there were "many and significant failings" by Cleveland Potash.

The second man has "fortunately" made a full recovery after suffering burns to 8% of his body, the judge said.

He said he accepted mining was a "highly complex and dangerous undertaking" and while Cleveland Potash did "not display a cavalier attitude to health and safety", the two incidents identified significant deficiencies which were long standing".

The judge also said there had been a "reinvigorating" of health and safety and the situation at the mine "is wholly improved".