The Western Australian Department of Mines and Petroleum says fatalities have dropped in the last thirteen years despite massive increases in the amount of workers.

Over the period since the year 2000, the number of people employed in mining has risen to about 100,000, but safety training and assessment procedures have been working at the same time to reduce mining accidents.

WA Department of Mines and Petroleum's lead technical investigator Allen Holmes says; “Although there has been an increase in the number of people, the injury statistics have been improving as the years go by.”

“The rate of which people were being killed 50 years ago and 25 years ago was much worse than it is now, and certainly in the period of the 90s for the previous review there were between eight and 10 people being killed every year in the mining industry for a much lower number of people. Where as in the review period I looked at, the average was four.”

The study conducted by the department showed that 62 per cent of the fatal cases involved onsite procedures not being followed. The research also showed 44 per cent of deaths involved supervisors in their first year on the job, which authorities indicate is a reason to ensure supervisors are fully aware of all risks when they take on the position, lest they have to learn through tragic mistakes.