Whyalla workers injured at steelworks' blast furnace

Three Whyalla Steelworks employees have been treated for injuries suffered during attempts to restart the site's troubled blast furnace, the ABC understands.The accident happened at the steelworks last Thursday and is now being examined by SafeWork SA, which attended the site on Friday.The ABC understands the three men were working on restarting the blast furnace, which has been offline for several months.The SA Ambulance Service said a man was taken to the Whyalla hospital with a leg injury.That man was flown to Adelaide on Monday for treatment, a spokesperson for the steelworks' administrator KordaMentha said.Two other men received minor burns, and the KordaMentha spokesperson said they were treated at the scene.In a statement, the workplace safety watchdog confirmed it was aware of the incident."SafeWork SA was notified about an incident at Whyalla steelworks on Thursday," a spokesperson said."Two SafeWork SA inspectors attended the site on Friday, 17 July. Enquiries are continuing."The furnace was built in the 1960s and is crucial to the steelmaking process. (ABC News: Che Chorley)KordaMentha said work had only been briefly disrupted.The Whyalla steelworks has been in administration since early 2025, when the South Australia government wrested control of the embattled site from GFG Alliance.The site's blast furnace is critical to steel production but has been offline since April.It was built in the 60s and has not been substantially upgraded since 2004.Premier Peter Malinauskas said yesterday that the process of restarting the blast furnace had begun "a few days ago" and initially went "exceedingly well", but that progress had since slowed."It will just take some time before we realise whether or not we can bring this furnace fully back up to life," he said."That could take days, it could take weeks. It's impossible to predict at this point."We go into it knowing there is no guarantee of success."Peter Malinauskas says the immediate future of the blast furnace remains unclear. (ABC News)The uncertainty around the immediate fate of the blast furnace has triggered concerns about job losses, with the premier previously acknowledging the possibility of redundancy packages."There are hundreds of jobs that hang off the blast furnace, but what we know is that the blast furnace is coming to an end at some point," the premier said yesterday."Even if we get the blast furnace fully up and running, it's going to get closed down in the not-too-distant future as we transition to a completely revitalised steelworks with electric arc furnaces and direct reduction iron facilities."Since the steelworks entered administration, the government and KordaMentha have been seeking to secure a buyer for the site.In May, the government announced M Resources and Jindal Steel were the two final bidders, but that BlueScope Steel retained its right of last offer.