The global mining company Anglo American has published a video with the full details of a serious crane incident at its Grosvenor mine in Queensland’s Bowen Basin last December.
In the incident, a 40 tonne Franna pick & carry crane overturned while travelling with a 20 tonne track from the LR 1280 crawler crane it was helping set up. The Franna 40 can normally manage this sort of load at a radius of just over three metres.
However, as it turned to go around the front of the crawler crane, the load swung well out of radius, while at the same time inflicting a huge side loading on the boom. As a result, it overturned. Thankfully, no one was hurt in the incident, although it narrowly missed a spotter/slinger signaller/banksman who managed to run clear of the crane’s boom. Damage was also light – apart from to the crane itself. The incident occurred around 9:30 on the 10th of December 2024.
The company stated that its investigation highlighted a “series of critical failures” in safety protocols. These included overriding the overload indicator and warnings, as well as changes made on site to the risk assessed lifts, which were re-classified as ‘routine’ instead of ‘critical’ despite significant changes in risk and terrain. Since the incident, the company has implemented real time alerts for override events and developed a log viewer to support accurate event interpretation and review.
In order to spread the message of what can go wrong when protocols are not adhered to Anglo American has created and published a detailed animation of the incident, highlighting what went wrong. At the same time, it hopes that by making it public and sharing lessons learned, it will encourage safer decision making across the industry.
Grosvenor Mine general manager Shane McDowall said: “This wasn’t just one poor decision but rather a series of critical failures. By showing the chain of decisions that led to the rollover, we’re helping people understand how small shortcuts and missed steps can build into something potentially catastrophic.”
“We’ve taken a hard look at every contributing factor — not to assign blame, but to ensure we embed the right behaviours, controls and conversations before a lift even begins. Our goal is for this video to be used by other operators, contractors and companies to spark honest discussions about safety. These lessons don’t just belong to us, they belong to everyone who works in this industry.”
“Everyone deserves to go home safely, and that’s why we are being open about what went wrong. This incident was preventable, and we want others to learn from it. The most important thing to come out of the mine is the miner.”
Franna AT40 cranes are now equipped with a safety radar to dynamically map safe working zones in real time, allowing operators to instantly see how boom extension, articulation and terrain will affect capacity.
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