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 Investigations and restoration works begin at Pioneer Mill 

Investigations and restoration works begin at Pioneer Mill

20/06/2008 4:40:00 PM
An engineering team has been sent to CSR Sugar's Pioneer Mill in North Queensland to work on restoring crushing operations as soon as possible.

CSR Sugar Mills Group executive general manager, Mark Day, says it is too early to determine when full production would resume at the mill.

"We are investigating solutions which will enable us to resume crushing as soon as possible," he said.

"However, we will, firstly, need to do a thorough investigation into today's incident to determine the cause."

Production ceased at Pioneer Mill this morning after a tank containing sugar juice and mud failed, causing damage to a neighbouring tank.

"One of our employees received a minor injury," Mr Day said.

"That person and two other employees were treated for shock and were taken to Ayr Hospital as a precautionary measure."

He said CSR Sugar was working with harvesting contractors and grower representative groups to organise for cane from the Pioneer milling area to be crushed at CSR's other Burdekin mills.

"We have made arrangements for harvested cane we already have at Pioneer Mill to be transported to Invicta, Kalamia and Inkerman mills to be crushed," he said.

"We are also working on a longer-term plan in relation to the crushing of Pioneer’s cane until the mill is operational again."

A total of about 80 employees and contractors were on site when the incident occurred.

"A full-site evacuation was activated and emergency services crews were called to the scene to assist our on-site emergency response team," Mr Day said.

Most employees were sent home after the evacuation was finalised, except for a team which assisted with the clean up.

CSR Sugar will make counselling available to all employees.

"We are assisting Division of Workplace Health and Safety officers with their investigation and conducting our own investigation," Mr Day said.

Contrary to early media reports, an explosion did not occur, he said.

"Our evacuation went extremely smoothly and everyone was accounted for quickly," he said.

"We thank the members of our on-site emergency response team and external emergency services crews for their assistance."

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Comments


Date: Newest first | Oldest first
CSR Sugar mills are renowned for slacking on maintenance programs which has also been responsible for lengthening the season of the crush - not an issue in past as it wasn't a human health issue. Lucky no-one was hurt - this time - CSR get your act together as next time you may not get off so lightly.
Posted by rb on 23/06/2008 12:33:47 PM
rb is right. CSR has gotten away with too much for too long. Bring in an administrator and check out how safe those factories really are. The workers deserve better and the farmers are going to lose another round of cane they won't harvest.

So much for their 'competitive market' and their viability. When is the government going to step in and admit they haven't deregulated the market, they've regulated it against the farmer and have given ALL the power to the millers.

This is the result, we better start praying that next time there aren't fatalities. How many close calls has this been now, Mr Day?

Posted by Aussie Farmer on 23/06/2008 1:38:30 PM
This major failure so soon into the season after a maintenance period where growers were assured by CSR that all nessecary repairs were done to provide a reliable factory. Why should growers have confidence in the Burdekin sugar industry and CSR?
Posted by Burdekin Farmer on 23/06/2008 5:48:22 PM
Reliably informed that root cause of failure was poor welds performed by a very poor tradesperson many years ago on a support leg under the vessel in a spot that is practically inaccessable to any possible preventative maintenance inspection. The way I see it - this was an unfortunate failure. CSR Burdekin region spent big dollars with maintenance this year and it obvious they are doing their best. The farmers need to stop their whinging, accept that some incidents/accidents in the workplace are unavoidable, and cope this one sweet. CSR have improvised and will get their cane off by seasons end with many haulouts etc are making extra money from this incident.
Posted by sw on 23/07/2008 3:48:22 PM

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With the cane harvest underway, CSR has been forced to transfer cane consigned to the Pioneer operation to other mills in the areaa.
With the cane harvest underway, CSR has been forced to transfer cane consigned to the Pioneer operation to other mills in the areaa.


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