The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Northern BC operation down for three weeks following fatality North of 60 Mining News – November 18, 2022
Newcrest has resumed operations at its Brucejack gold mine in Northern British Columbia.
Newcrest Mining Ltd. Nov. 16 announced the restart of operations at Brucejack following a more than three-week shutdown to investigate the cause of an Oct. 22 fatality at the high-grade underground gold mine in Northern British Columbia.
While details surrounding the cause of the incident nor the identity of the miner involved have not been released, it was previously reported that the worker was an employee of Procon, the underground mine contractor at Brucejack.
In order to facilitate the investigation and focus on supporting those impacted by the fatal incident, Newcrest suspended operations at its newest gold mine.
"There is nothing more important than the safety and wellbeing of those who work with us, and our focus is on providing support to all those impacted during this distressing time as we assist with the ongoing investigation," Newcrest Mining CEO Sandeep Biswas said at the time.
Newcrest gained full ownership of Brucejack in March after closing a US$2.8 billion buyout of Pretium Resources Inc., the former owner and operator of the Northern BC gold mine.
Prior to Newcrest's purchase, there had been two fatalities at Brucejack since the mine opened in 2018.
One of the top priorities for Newcrest was to introduce its NewSafe program to provide a framework for the next evolution of safety at Brucejack.
The Australian mining company says it has redoubled its efforts to ensure worker safety at the mine.
"The devastating incident at Brucejack is a stark reminder that safety must always be our number one priority as a business," said Biswas. "During the suspension of operations we reviewed all activities at Brucejack to identify major hazards and corresponding critical controls to prevent fatalities and life-changing injuries. We also established additional control verification mechanisms to ensure those critical controls are effective and working."
Despite the more than three-week shutdown, Newcrest continues to forecast that Brucejack will produce 320,000 to 370,000 ounces of gold during the Australian mining company's fiscal year 2023, which began on July 1.
Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.
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