Operations at one of Australia’s largest gold mines had to be temporarily suspended on Friday after a partial wall collapse at one of the mine’s tailings dams.

The wall collapse at the Cadia mine comes just a few days after two earthquakes hit the area, located just south of Orange.

The wall breach was noticed in the late afternoon on Friday when workers noticed a section of the northern dam wall had collapsed into the southern tailings dam.

An aerial image showing the collapsed section of the tailings dam.

The tailings dams contain byproducts of mining and can contain materials which are harmful to the environment and human health.