Two earthquakes have rocked parts of western NSW in the space of 150 minutes.
A magnitude-3.4 quake was recorded within the Newmont Cadia Gold Mine site, south of Orange, at about 5:45am.
It is one of the nation’s largest gold operations.
Geoscience Australia says 100 people from areas including Orange, Millthorpe, Blayney and Oberon reported feeling the tremor, which occurred 1 kilometre underground.
Cadia Gold Mine near Orange in Central West NSW is one of Australia’s largest gold mines. (Supplied: Newcrest Mining)
Blayney Shire Mayor Bruce Reynolds, who lives 12 kilometres from the epicentre, was watching breakfast television at the time.
Cr Reynolds said the quake lasted for about five seconds.
“It was like a truck coming towards you, but a very big truck,”
he said.
Earlier, a magnitude-3.2 earthquake was recorded north-west of Wilcannia at about 3:20am.
Just two people reported feeling the quake, which was detected by a remote station near the Mutawintji National Park.
The Central West quake came just two months after below-ground operations were suspended at the Cadia mine site for five weeks after a magnitude-4.5 earthquake trapped employees in underground refuge chambers for more than 10 hours.
The quake on April 14 was the largest on record for the Orange region and was felt as far away as Sydney, Canberra and Wollongong.
Prior to that, the previous record was a magnitude-4.3 earthquake felt in the Orange region in 2017, which also led to a precautionary evacuation of Cadia and halted operations for several months.
Cr Reynolds said today’s quake was nowhere as intense as the previous one.
“We are quite experienced with earthquakes and that big 4.5 was sort of five to 10 times more violent — the house shook quite abruptly,” he said.
“This is the third earthquake in very close proximity, looking where the pinpoint is, which is very close to the Cadia mine.”
The ABC has contacted the mine’s operator, Newmont, for comment.
