Hayden said the union would meet with WorkSafe on Thursday morning. He will provide an update to the public from Ballarat at 10am.
“Obviously, up until now… everyone has been referring to it as a rescue. We want to make sure we give the authorities the ability to follow through on what they’re doing, contacting family members, but at this stage, yeah, it is a recovery,” he said.
Ballarat Acting Inspector Lisa Macdougall said the incident occurred about three kilometres into the mine, which is on Indicator Lane in Mount Clear, south of Ballarat.
“Obviously, there’s a couple of phases that have been undertaken. That was the rescue of the patient that’s been airlifted or the extraction of the other employees who were in the mine,” Macdougall said.
About 30 people were involved in the rescue including members of Victoria Police, Ambulance Victoria, the CFA, a mine rescue team and other partner agencies.
Mine owners Victory Minerals released a statement late on Wednesday saying its emergency response team was working closely with Victoria Police and other authorities.
“Right now our priority is the safety and wellbeing of our mining workers and their families,” the statement said.
Victory Minerals took operational control of the Ballarat Goldmine in December 2023.
“We bring significant experience and expertise to the mine. We are a safety first mine operator and respect the work that underground miners perform every day,” the statement continued.
The mine’s website states it has an extensive network of tunnels and operates deep beneath buildings, streets and homes.
Police at the scene of a mine collapse in Ballarat.Credit: Joe Armao
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan issued a statement about 7pm on Wednesday.
“I’m thinking of every worker and every family who is impacted by this event. Tonight will be a long night for them and for the entire Ballarat community,” she said.
Ballarat’s goldfields attracted migrants from across the world in the 1850s and gold has continued to be mined in recent years.
Victory Minerals employs about 200 people and aims to produce about 40,000 to 50,000 ounces of gold a year.
Miners are brought to the surface at a Ballarat gold mine after a tunnel collapse in 2007.Credit: Craig Abraham
However, The Australian Financial Review has reported a subsidiary of London hedge fund Acheron Capital agreed to buy the mine three months ago from the liquidators of collapsed companies Balmaine Gold, which traded as Victory Minerals, and Golden Point Group.
The ABC and the Financial Review have reported an estimated 600 tonnes of rock collapsed into one of the mine’s underground tunnels in March 2021.
In November 2007, rescuers successfully brought 27 miners back to the surface at the Mount Clear gold mine after they were trapped hundreds of metres underground by a cave-in.
The miners were dramatically lifted from a ventilation shaft just after 8am on November 19, almost five hours after the cave-in trapped them up underground.
The 2007 cave-in happened at 3.30am. At the time, one of the miners made mobile phone contact with people on the surface after the collapse.
One year earlier, Tasmanian miners Todd Russell and Brant Webb were trapped almost a kilometre underground for two weeks by a rock fall on Anzac Day at the Beaconsfield gold mine in Tasmania. Their colleague Larry Knight died in the collapse.
Bushland near the Mount Clear mine was the focus of a major search operation for missing Ballarat mother Samantha Murphy in the past month. Last week, police charged 22-year-old Patrick Stephenson with murder, alleging he attacked her at Mount Clear.
With Rachel Eddie