Body found in search for miner trapped underground

Searchers have found a body in an underground coalmine a day after the worker was trapped under a collapsed roof.

The man was inside the Curragh mine in central Queensland when the collapse happened about 3pm on Friday.

Emergency responders found the dead worker on Saturday evening, state acting mines minister Tony Perrett said.

"One worker was safely recovered yesterday, while specialist teams worked through the night to stabilise the site and access the second individual," he said in a statement.

"Tragically, that worker could not be saved."

Curragh Coal Mine is north of Blackwater, about 200km west of Rockhampton.

The site covers about 256 square kilometres across two separate mines and has been in operation since 1983.

Curragh has been owned by Coronado Global Resources since buying the mine in 2018.

Coronado chief executive Douglas Thompson said the company was deeply saddened by the incident and extended its deepest sympathies to the family and colleagues of the worker.

He said it was providing support to contracted mine operator Mammoth Underground Mine Management, which was working with authorities to understand the cause of the incident.

A Coronado spokesperson said earlier that all underground mining operations had been suspended.

In a separate incident about 300km north of Curragh, a gold prospector working at a private mine site died after being hit by falling rocks.

The 58-year-old man had been working alone with an excavator at a Mount Britton property when a rock face partially collapsed on Friday afternoon.

Injuries to his leg caused by a falling rock eventually claimed the man's life, police said on Saturday.

Mr Perrett said both incidents were "tragic reminders of the risks faced by those who work in our resources sector".

"Every worker deserves to return home safely, and I expect full and thorough investigations into both incidents to ensure answers are provided and lessons are learned."