Three miners remain trapped underground following an incident at a mine in northern B.C.
Newmont Corp., majority owner of the Red Chris copper and gold mine in Dease Lake, B.C., said two “fall of ground incidents” occurred at the mine on the morning of July 22, which led to the miners becoming trapped.
A “fall of ground” incident in mining refers to an uncontrolled and unexpected collapse or detachment of rock or other material from the roof, walls, or face of an underground excavation.
Newmont spokesperson Shannon Brushe said the two fall of ground incidents happened at the access way to the underground portion of a non-producing area of the Red Chris mine.
“At the time of the initial incident, three business partner employees were working more than 500 meters beyond the affected zone and were asked to relocate to a designated refuge station before a subsequent fall of ground blocked the access way,” Brushe said in a July 23 statement to The Epoch Times.
“Following the first event, contact was established with the individuals and confirmation was received that they had safely relocated to one of multiple self contained refuge bays.”
Brushe noted that the refuge stations are equipped with food, water, and ventilation, and can support “an extended stay” if needed.
Brushe said the second fall of ground event led to “restricted communication” with the miners, and the mine has been temporarily shut down as specialist teams respond to the situation.
“Newmont is actively assessing all methods and technologies available to restore communication and safely bring our team members to surface,” she said.
B.C. Premier David Eby commented on the situation on July 23 during a press conference at a meeting of Canada’s premiers in Huntsville, Ont.
“There are three miners that are currently trapped underground. They are, to the best of our knowledge, uninjured and in a refuge area,” Eby told reporters.
Eby said two of the miners are from B.C. and one is from Ontario.
“The company is working with our world-leading mining rescue teams,” Eby said, adding that rescue teams “will be working overtime to bring these workers home safely to their families.”
B.C. Mining Minister Jagrup Brar says the ministry has sent a geotechnical inspector to the Red Chris mine site to support rescue efforts, while B.C.’s Transportation Ministry has also fast-tracked a permit to allow heavy equipment to relocate from the nearby Brucejack mine to assist.
Newmont has a 70 percent interest in Red Chris mine, with the remaining 30 percent held by Imperial Metals Corp. The mine is an open-pit gold and copper mine that has been in operation for a decade. Although the mine is primarily an open-pit operation, Newmont has said in a previous statement that development of underground block-cave mining started in 2019.
The Canadian Mining Journal has said block caving can extend the life of an open pit operation, and the underground mass mining method allows for bulk extraction of lower-grade ore deposits. Block caving is a method that involves undercutting a large body of ore to allow it to slowly collapse under its own weight in order to access and extract large vertical ore deposits.
Dease Lake is a small town about 230 kilometres south of the Yukon border with an estimated population of 229 as of the last available figures from Statistics Canada.
