A court has fined mining giant Vale Canada Limited more than one-million dollars in the deaths of two miners buried in a torrent of mud in 2011. Jason Chenier and Jordan Fram were killed when wet mud and ore flooded the tunnel where they were working at Vale’s Stobie Mine in Sudbury, Ontario.
Chenier had written an email to management in the days before he died, warning there was a buildup of water in the ore pass and saying all dumping and blasting should stop until the water situation was under control.
Vale pleaded guilty to three contraventions of Ontario’s workplace safety law.
The union representing the men asked the Attorney General’s Office to consider criminal charges against company officials, under what is known as the Westray bill. Named after a coal mining disaster in the province of Nova Scotia, the bill makes workplace negligence a criminal offence.
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