Mining company fined $300,000 following worker fatality

TORONTO — Williams Operating Corporation, a mining company operating near Marathon, Ont., has been fined $300,000 after a worker was killed while performing duties at a mining operation.

Following a guilty plea in provincial offences court in Marathon, the Toronto-based mining company was fined by Justice of the Peace Marcel Donio on Nov. 15.

Williams Operating Corporation operates the Hemlo Mine near Marathon. The mining operation involves the extraction of gold.

The incident occurred July 14, 2021. Power to the underground portion of the mine had been restored following a full-day shutdown for maintenance to underground electrical substations.

A worker was involved in the process of clearing and readying the automation zone of the mine for use by the night shift, which had just begun. The zone is an area of the mine where autonomous trucks, which do not have drivers physically located on the trucks, are operated and personnel are normally excluded from the area.

The worker’s duties included ensuring there were no personnel or equipment in the area and securing all safety access gates prior to truck operations, states a court bulletin.

The worker received a call advising that an automatic gate in the area needed to be reset. The worker went to the gate and proceeded to reset it near what is known as the F-belt access doors.

While there was no witness to the event, it is believed the worker attempted to go through the doors and was fatally injured while doing so, the bulletin states, adding a Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development investigation determined the air lines to the solenoid that operates the switch controlling the opening and closing of the access doors were reversed relative to other doors in the mine.

The other doors in the mine were designed to default to an open position following a power outage to facilitate easier and faster evacuation of the workers in case of an emergency but the F-belt access doors functioned in reverse of this, defaulting to a closed position following a power outage.

The court found Williams failed as an employer to ensure that door controls were installed, and the installation was maintained as designed, contrary to section 25(1)(b) of the Ontario Health and Safety Act.