SYDNEY, N.S. — The province’s minister of Labour and Advanced Education describes the Donkin Mine as one of the most dangerous worksites in the province.
And while Labi Kousoulis said we’re not at that point yet, if the province gets an indication the mine cannot mitigate the danger, the question will become why is the mine able to continue to operate.
Kousoulis made the comments to reporters in a post-cabinet scrum and conference call Wednesday. It came after a series of rockfalls that have forced the mine to shut down operations. It has recently resumed mining, in an area that hadn’t been affected by previous rockfalls. No one has been injured as a result of the falls.
“I’ve had concerns from day one,” he said. “This is probably one of the most dangerous worksites in our province.”
Mining experts from the United States will be touring the mine, owned by Kameron Collieries, next week.
Kousoulis said the department has been following all expert guidelines and exceeded code in efforts to shore the operation up, but falls continue to take place, "which every time it happens is a concern to the department and myself.”
The minister added he will use the opinions of those experts to help guide what the future direction should be with respect to the mine.
The priority is worker safety, Kousoulis said, adding if he gets an indication that rockfalls will continue, the province may have to look at taking further action.
“If we can’t mitigate it, then why are we operating the mine?” he said.
“This is an industrial worksite. It’s a unique situation where it’s underneath the ocean floorbed, it’s always a concern.”
Experts from Mine Safety and Health Administration will be touring various parts of the coal mine but will focus on the area of the most recent rockfalls. The Mine Safety and Health Administration is the federally regulating body for coal mining in the United States.
A stop-work order was placed on all mining production at Donkin Mine on Feb. 13, after a rockfall during a shift. There were 35-40 miners underground at the time. There were no injuries.
On Feb. 3 employees arriving to work in the coal mine discovered a rockfall had occurred sometime over the weekend in an intersection of a production area, about 70 feet from where they were last mining. There wasn’t any production or mining taking place during that weekend.
The two rockfalls occurred at intersections near each other.
Since the coal mine opened in 2017, there have been 12 rockfalls.
