[Sudbury Glencore] Fatality at Nickel Rim Mine – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – October 20, 2015)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

A Ministry of Labour inspector was on the way at noon to the scene of a fatality at Glencore’s Nickel Rim South Mine.

An employee, a member of Mine Mill Local 598/Unifor, was killed when a piece of machinery fell on him. The union represents production and maintenance workers.

Labour ministry spokeswoman Janet Deline confirmed a worker died this morning at the mine owned by Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations, a Glencore company.

Deline said paramedics were on the scene and Greater Sudbury Police Service officials were “holding” the site of the accident.

The company issued a statement a few hours after the accident, saying: “We confirm a fatality underground at our Nickel Rim South Mine this morning. We have informed the family of the deceased and are extending our full support to the family.

“The Ontario Ministry of Labour and the police are on site and are receiving our full co-operation,” said company spokeswoman Iyo Grenon.

All shifts at Nickel Rim South were cancelled Tuesday until further notice.

Officials with Local 598 also travelled to the accident scene, but weren’t immediately available for comments.

The last worker believed to have been killed at mining operations owned by Falconbridge, then Noranda, Xstrata and now Glencore was Bert Warren Bottrell, who died Feb. 24, 1998 after a sudden fall of rock.

An inquest into Bottrell’s death, held in late 1999, produced five recommendations to improve safety for miners at Falconbridge. Two of them were authored by Bill Bottrell, the deceased’s brother. 
The jury recommended increasing the use of mechanized equipment where the work environment permits its safe use. 
It also recommended supervisors and the joint health and safety committee audit the workplace regularly to ensure compliance with standard work practices.

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