Wesdome Gold Mines has been fined $100,000 after a worker was injured by falling rock at the company’s Eagle River mine near Wawa, Ontario’s labour ministry announced.
The incident occurred underground on Sept. 22, 2024, at the mine site located about 50 kilometres west of Wawa. The Toronto-based mining company pleaded guilty in Provincial Offences Court in Thunder Bay, with the conviction entered on Aug. 21. The ministry announced the penalty in a news release issued Oct. 6.
According to the ministry, the worker was developing a raise — a vertical or inclined opening excavated upward between mine levels — at the time of the incident. While scaling the wall from a work platform inside the raise, a loose rock fell from the hanging wall and injured the worker. The release did not specify the extent of the injury.
Investigation Findings
Labour ministry investigators found that the raise had inadequate ground support. Roughly five straps, 14 rock bolts, and 18 pieces of rebar were missing from the brow of the stope through to the second set of staging in the raise.
Investigators also determined that the raise had been excavated too narrow, which made it difficult to install the rock bolts needed to maintain safe ground conditions.
Regulatory Violation
The ministry concluded that Wesdome failed to ensure the ground conditions in the open raise were adequately supported and safe for the work being carried out, as required under subsection 66(1) of the Mines and Mining Plants of Ontario Regulation 854.
In addition to the $100,000 fine, the company is required to pay a 25 per cent victim surcharge, which is directed into a provincial fund supporting victims of crime.
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