Worker dies at Wiluna West iron ore mine, marking the first work-related fatality at a WA mine in 2025

The owner of a West Australian iron ore mine near Wiluna has expressed “deep sympathy” after a 32-year-old worker died on the job on Thursday morning. WorkSafe said its investigators from Perth and Kalgoorlie will attend the site on Friday, while WA Police said they were alerted to the incident at 10.22am. “Emergency services attended and emergency first-aid was immediately conducted, but sadly, the 32-year-old man was declared deceased,” a WA Police spokeswoman said. The West Australian understands he was a contractor at the Wiluna West iron ore mine. It is also understood the deadly incident involved a bogged truck following wet weather on Wednesday night. The man’s family, friends and colleagues are being notified of his death. Wiluna West is located in central WA about 40km west of Wiluna and 175km east of Meekatharra. The mine is owned by Yuzheng Xie’s Gold Valley. Mr Xie told The West Australian Gold Valley was fully co-operating with the relevant authorities. He expressed “deep sympathy” for the man’s loved ones following the “very upsetting” incident. Gold Valley bought the Wiluna West project from GWR Group for $30 million plus a $2 per dry metric tonne royalty in December 2023. Last year, Mr Xie told The West that Wiluna West on average has about 80 workers on site at the mine and another 80 to 100 trucking the ore to port. Iron ore from Wiluna West was exclusively shipped via Geraldton Port until Gold Valley secured space at Esperance Port in June last year after Mineral Resources shut its Koolyanobbing iron ore mine. Wiluna West is located 940km from road to Esperance and about 720km to the Port of Geraldton. The last work-related WA mine site death occurred in December last year. Peter Groves, a 29-year-old drilling contractor, died at Saturn Metals’ Apollo Hill gold project in the northern Goldfields. Last month, WorkSafe shut down an open-pit iron ore mine in WA for two days after a routine inspection “uncovered inadequate emergency response capabilities”. “Inspectors from WA’s workplace health and safety regulator issued a notice prohibiting the operation of the mine’s heavy vehicles and limiting the movement of its light vehicles after they found the site — located more than 100 kilometres from the volunteer-staffed nearest responding agency — had no mobile plant and vehicle rescue equipment and minimal apparatus to deal with any emergency situation,” the safety watchdog stated this week. It is understood the mine in question was not Wiluna West.