It made international headlines when 39 miners were trapped underground at Vale’s Totten Mine in September. And there were cheers around the world when all made it out safe and sound.
Now, after almost five months, officials said Tuesday production has resumed and the mine has reopened.
“We’ve been bringing people back to work for a while, but it’s this week where things are really starting to kind of hit a more normal state at Totten,” said Gord Gilpin, head of Vale’s Ontario operations.
“We are in a ramp-up period but we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
In September, a scoop bucket got stuck in the main shaft, trapping the employees and forcing them to climb at least 1,800 feet to the surface. Gilpin said procedures have been put in place to prevent that from happening again.
“We’ve got some very clear measures that have been put in place related to how we sling material underground,” he said.
“So those are procedures and planning and things like that that need to be followed very rigorously. So there’s some good improvement there that’s in place and then also we’ve done some engineering (and) we will continue to do more engineering from a continuous improvement perspective."
The Ontario Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development is also looking into the incident. In a statement, the ministry said its investigation is still ongoing.
"To date, a total of 19 orders have been issued," the statement said.
"The Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development did not shut down the worksite or make the decision for the worksite to resume operations."
Gilpin said all of Vale’s employees have returned.
“We know that this was a very difficult experience for them and also their families for sure,” he said.
“As we mentioned at the outset, we were quite concerned about monitoring how they were both from a physical and mental health perspective.”
“We’ve done the follow-up work and we will continue to monitor and make sure that everyone is in a good state," Gilpin added.
