The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.
First Nickel Inc. was to begin a staged recall of its workforce Thursday after the Ministry of Labour lifted the suspension of its underground operations in all areas of Lockerby Mine, except the area where two men were killed early Tuesday.
Drillers Norm Bisaillon, 49, and Marc Methe, 34, employees of Taurus Drilling Services, were killed by a fall of material, believed to have been preceded by seismic activity.
The area where the men were killed from 3 to 3:30 a.m., at the 6,500-foot level, remains under restricted access while the ministry investigates. The ministry is being assisted in that investigation by the company and by Mine Mill Local 598/Unifor, which represents production and maintenance workers at Lockerby Mine, although Methe and Bisaillon did not belong to the union.
Before First Nickel began recalling its 120 production and maintenance workers, employees were reintegrated into the worksite through a series of sessions designed to provide a safety reorientation. The company said the reorientation would reconfirm First Nickel’s commitment to providing a safe working environment for employees and contractors.
Thomas Boehlert, president and chief executive of First Nickel, said the company’s priority right now is to support the Bisaillon and Methe families, as well as friends and coworkers affected by the tragedy.
First Nickel will continue to strive to provide its employees and 100 or so contractors with a safe working environment “to ensure all who enter the mine site are able to return home safely every day,” said Boehlert.
“I would like to express my gratitude to the mine rescue unit, Sudbury’s other mining operations who assisted us, the local community, and everyone who has expressed condolences and support over the past days,” said Boehlert in a news release.
Meanwhile, Nickel Belt New Democrat MP Claude Gravelle, the party’s Mines critic, spoke of the deaths of the two men in his riding Thursday in the House of Commons.
A retired Inco machinist, Gravelle told his Commons colleagues he knows what “these days are like back home. I had friends killed in the mining industry. Now my daughter and her generation mourn a friend killed. Generation to generation. It can be a dangerous job.
“One death is one too many,” said Gravelle. “Sudbury has had three mining deaths in four weeks, six deaths in less than three years. This is a call to action.”
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