Two workers killed at Vale’s Stobie mine in Sudbury

The two workers killed June 8 from falling debris at Vale‘s (VALE-N) Stobie underground mine in Sudbury, Ont., had worked for the company for many years. Jason Chenier, 35, and Jordan Fram, 26, were working 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 confirmed in an e-mail 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, Ontario’s Ministry of Labour and Sudbury police.

Both the day and night shifts were cancelled the day after the accident. Employees returned to work on June 10 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 Chenier had worked at Vale for eleven years, and Fram 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.

In 2006, a worker at the Stobie mine was killed while operating a scoop tram remotely from an underground platform. “He ended up being discovered beneath the drilling platform,” McPhee confirmed.

Three other miners were injured at the mine last December, when a scoop tram “freewheeled” down a portion of a ramp and collided with a jeep.