A DOZEN gold miners near the epicentre of Wednesday's earthquake at A1 Mine Settlement south of Mansfield got the shock of their lives as they were more than 400 metres underground at the time of the event.

The earthquake measured a 5.9 magnitude according to Geoscience Australia and the epicentre was between Mansfield and Rawson, which puts A1 Mine Settlement incredibly close.

Geology manager at Centennial Mining Ltd, Shawn Panton, was working onsite at the mine when it occurred and he described the earthquake as "absolutely terrifying".

He had just come up from underground minutes before but there were 12 miners still underground with some more than 450 metres down at the very bottom of the mine when the earthquake struck.

"We didn't know what was going on at the time and we got a terrible fright, the ground was shaking and it was audibly very loud," he said.

He went to the tab board which keeps track of where mining employees are on site at any given time and an evacuation process for the miners was put into action.

"We got in contact with everyone who was underground and had them evacuated and made sure everyone was present and accounted for," Mr Panton said.

"It's not the place you want to be when an earthquake is taking place but everyone is safe with no injuries reported."

A1 Mine was immediately shut for the day pending inspections around the mine infrastructure underground.

Mr Panton is an experienced miner of 25 years and he and others who have been in the industry for more than 40 years said they've never experienced anything like it.

Given that the earthquake was estimated to be only 10km deep it was felt as far north as Brisbane, in Western Australia and as far south as northern Tasmania.

Once the drama was over Mr Panton headed home to his Gaffney's Creek abode and noticed a glass had fallen off a shelf and his dog was a bit spooked, but he was thankful it was nothing worse.

The A1 Mine went from being a shaft mine to a decline mine in 2009 after operating from 1992, but proper operation didn't crank up until about 2015 after the conversion was complete.