Aerial view of the Red Chris pits mine from 2017.Garth Lenz/The Globe and Mail
Three workers are trapped more than 500 metres underground in a northern B.C. mine after multiple collapses blocked an access way.
The first ground collapse at Red Chris gold and copper mine – located in Tahltan Nation territory near Dease Lake – happened on Tuesday morning and forced the employees to escape to a designated refuge station.
A subsequent collapse blocked the access way and cut off communication.
The mine’s majority owner, Colorado-based Newmont Corp., described the incident in an unsigned statement Wednesday.
The mine’s refuge station has supplies of food, water and ventilation, the statement said.
Two of the trapped miners are from B.C. and one is from Ontario, Premier David Eby said at an unrelated news conference Wednesday morning. He didn’t provide any more details on the workers.
The mine has paused operations and is assembling a specialist team from nearby mines to respond, the company statement said.
“Our priority remains on ensuring the safety of the three individuals and of the emergency response teams supporting this effort.”
The province has dispatched a geotechnical inspector to support the rescue efforts, alongside approving a permit to move heavy equipment from the nearby Brucejack mine, said a statement from Jagrup Brar, B.C. Minister of Mining and Critical Minerals.
Newmont holds a 70-per-cent stake in the open-pit mine. The remaining stake is controlled by Imperial Metals Corporation.
The Red Chris mine was seeking to transition from open-pit to underground mining in a bid to unlock 80,000 more tonnes of copper per year. The switch would increase Canada’s production by 15 per cent, according to Newmont.
In December, Imperial Metals Corporation was slapped with 15 charges for violating the federal Fisheries Act in a tailings-pond spill one decade earlier. The Mount Polley copper and gold mine disaster polluted local waterways with 25 million cubic metres of wastewater including arsenic, lead and copper.