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The Ontario coroner has announced an inquest into the death of a 64-year-old New Brunswick mining worker northwest of Thunder Bay in 2020 that resulted in hefty fines for the companies involved.
Edouard Gallant died on May 27, 2020, after sustaining critical injuries in a run of muck (an uncontrolled flow of blasted ore saturated with concrete and water) at Lac des Iles Mine. The open-pit, underground palladium facility is within Kiashke Zaaging Anishinaabek, known as Gull Bay First Nation.
Gallant, from Dunlop, N.B., was employed by contractor SCR Mining and Tunnelling at the time.
In October 2023, Impala Canada was fined $300,000 and SCR was fined $130,000 for failing to ensure safety provisions in the workplace in connection with Gallant’s death. Recently, Impala Canada CEO Tim Hill announced that the mine will shut down by May 2026 due to slumping palladium prices.
The inquest, which is mandatory under the Coroners Act, was announced Tuesday by Dr. Kevin Miller, regional supervising coroner for the northwest region. The date and location have yet to be announced.
An inquest’s five-person jury is tasked with identifying who died, when and where they died, their medical cause of death, and by what means they died — classified as either natural causes, accident, homicide, suicide or undetermined. Jurors cannot assign blame or make any legal judgments, but may make recommendations aimed at preventing similar deaths.
Reasons behind 2023 fines
In 2023, Ontario’s Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development said “muck travels through ore passes by tumbling and sliding along the pass.
“Over time, ore pass walls can become damaged and enlarged, allowing the surrounding rock to fail and fall into the pass, which can negatively affect mine production.”
In Gallant’s case, he was at the bottom of the ore pass, trying to remove the lockout locks so that additional muck could be evacuated, the ministry said.
“The worker, communicating with colleagues at the top of the ore pass with a radio, advised there was some trouble getting the muck to come down the ore pass to the skip. Very shortly after, the muck dropped suddenly.”
The muck then “overwhelmed the protective barriers at the base of the ore pass, fatally injuring the worker.”
The ministry said Lac des Iles failed to comply with Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act, since its risk assessment at the time should have “considered the location and placement of SCR personnel during the muck draw-down activities that could pose a danger to workers.”
Furthermore, the owner of an underground mine must develop and maintain a written water management program with measures and procedures to prevent unwanted or uncontrolled flows of water in all areas of the mine, including ore passes, the Ministry of Labour said.
However, “because the mine’s ore passes are typically dry, [Lac des Iles’s] plan did not include procedures to guard against the addition and accumulation of water in ore passes related to repair activities.”