A Toronto mining company's been fined over the death of a worker at Marathon's Hemlo Mine last year.
Ontario's Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development says Williams Operating Corporation (which conducts some portion of the mine operations and contracts out for others) entered a guilty plea to ensuring controls were installed for an automatic door and that the installation was maintained as designed, resulting in a $300,000 fine, plus a 25% victim fine surcharge, which goes to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.
According to the Ministry, the incident occurred July 14th, 2021, after power to the underground portion of the mine had been restored following a full-day shutdown for maintenance to underground electrical substations, with an employee of a contractor involved in clearing and readying the automation zone of the mine for use by the night shift advised that an automatic gate needed to be reset - while there were no witnesses, investigators say it appears the worker attempted to go through nearby access doors after resetting the gate, but was fatally injured in the process, with investigation determining the doors were designed to default to a closed position following a power outage - the opposite of other doors in the mine - leading to the charges against Williams.