Todd Russell died at age 54,Australian miner

Todd Russell, an Australian miner who survived the 2006 Beaconsfield Mine collapse, died November 10, 2026, aged 54.

The disaster began at 9:26 p.m. on April 25, when a magnitude-2.3 earthquake triggered an underground rockfall at the gold mine in Beaconsfield, Tasmania.

Of the 17 people underground, 14 escaped immediately. Miner Larry Knight was killed, while Russell and Brant Webb remained trapped and unaccounted for. The two men had been working in a basket at the end of a telehandler’s arm when the rockfall struck. They were found alive on the sixth day by miners Pat Ball and Steve Saltmarsh, and were rescued on May 9, after nearly two weeks underground. The rescue brought the ordeal to an end for the two surviving miners, whose whereabouts had been unknown since the collapse. In the early aftermath, there was speculation that mine blasting had caused the rockfall; Geoscience Australia identified the small earthquake as its trigger. Russell’s place in the Beaconsfield story was that of one of the two miners who endured the collapse and were brought out alive. The episode unfolded over two weeks, from the earthquake and rockfall on April 25 to the rescue of Russell and Webb on May 9.