The two workers killed late Wednesday night from falling debris at Vale‘s (VALE-N) Stobie underground mine in Sudbury, Ontario, have been identified as Jason Chenier, 35, and Jordan Fram, 26.
The men were working at the 3000-ft level or about 900 metres underground near an ore pass when they were buried in a run of muck. It took rescue workers one hour and twenty minutes to recover the body of one of the men, the company has confirmed in an email to The Northern Miner.
Both men were pronounced dead at the scene.
The deaths are being investigated by the company, the United Steelworkers Local 6500, the Ministry of Labour and the Greater Sudbury Police Services.
Both the day and night shifts were cancelled on Thursday. Employees are returning to work today but Cory McPhee, the company’s vice president of corporate affairs, said Vale “is not starting up ‘production’ at this time.”
“We are ensuring everyone is paired up for support and getting people back into the work environment to overcome the trauma.”
Jon Treen, Vale’s general manager of Ontario operations, described the fatalities as a “devastating loss.”
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families, friends and co-workers of these employees,” he said. “We are concentrating our efforts on supporting the families and our employees at the mine site and on investigating the incident to understand exactly what occurred.”
Treen noted that one of the men had worked at Vale for eleven years and the other for six.
“Both individuals were skilled employees and wonderful people, and words cannot express how deep our sorrow is at their loss,” he said at a press conference Thursday morning.
In 2006 a worker at the Stobie mine was killed while operating a scoop tram remotely from a platform underground. “He ended up being discovered beneath the drilling platform,” McPhee confirmed.
Three other miners were injured at the mine in December 2010, when a scoop tram “freewheeled” down a portion of a ramp and collided with a jeep.
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