A wheeled loading shovel was collecting stock stone and feeding this into the process plant. As part of this process, the wheeled loading shovel then scrapes the haul road and pushes the material to the side at the bottom of the hill before collecting more stock stone and repeating the process. It is believed that during the scraping process of the road the bucket has damaged the high voltage cable.

Operators were trained and competent to perform the task they were performing.

Learning Points

The road had been widened historically without the knowledge of the buried HV cables.

Actions

• Conduct a scan of the entire site to identify all buried cables and utilities.
• Sign and mark locations of all buried cables and utilities.