A West Australian mineral processing company has been fined $90,000 after a serious incident in 2012.

Process Minerals International Pty Ltd - operator of the Woodie Woodie treatment plant in the Pilbara – has pleaded guilty to two charges of failing to provide a safe working environment.

The WA Department of Mines and Petroleum brought the charges after its investigation into the serious injury of worker Meliton Garcia in 2012.

The court found Process Minerals failed to provide proper procedures for the safe unloading of pipes from a truck.

Mr Garcia was struck by one of the one-tonne, 20m-long polyethylene pipes that he and another worker were unloading.

They were rigging the pipes to a crane to be unloaded when Mr Garcia was struck and swept off the stack of pipes, falling 4 metres to the ground.

Department of Mines and Petroleum director of mines safety and mining engineer Andrew Chaplyn said someone could have been killed.

“It was only luck that the consequences were not much worse,” Mr Chaplyn said.

“It is incidents such as this that provide a stark reminder for industry to take the risk of fall from height seriously.

“In this case, the workers were not provided with a safe system of work and were unnecessarily exposed to a serious hazard.

“This decision sends an important message about ensuring safety is given the highest priority on WA’s mine sites.”