Whitehorse Daily Star

Stop-work order was applied following blast at minesite

A Pelly Construction Ltd. employee

By Chuck Tobin on May 23, 2017

A Pelly Construction Ltd. employee man injured in an explosion at the Minto Mine early last Friday afternoon has been released from hospital, the mine manager said early this afternoon.

Ron Light told the Star the heavy equipment operator was working in the open pit on a hydraulic shovel loading a rock truck with ore from a recent blast.

He contacted an undetonated blasting cap and booster, resulting in detonation at 1:35 p.m.

That caused rocks to fly which hit the windshield and shattered it, resulting in injuries to the operator, Light said.

“The operator was medevaced off-site, seen by appropriate medical facilities and as of this time has been released from hospital,” he said.

The employee’s identity is not being released.

Light said blast sites in the pit are investigated after each blast to check for unexploded material.

In this case, the undetonated material was not detected.

Andrew Robulack of the Yukon Workers’ Compensation Health and Safety Board said today two board investigators flew into the mine site at around 5 p.m. Friday.

The inspectors have left the mine site but the accident is still under investigation.

Until it wraps up, the board will not be releasing any details, he said.

Robulack said a stop-work order in the area of the explosion was put in place Friday but was lifted shortly after 9 p.m. Monday.

Jennifer Byram, Pelly Construction’s vice-president, said this morning the injured emplyee is a veteran Pelly operator from northern B.C. who has been with the company for about 15 years.

Byram pointed out Pelly has probably been involved with more than 1,000 blasts at the Minto Mine and nothing like this has ever happened before.

It’s difficult seeing an employee get hurt, she said.

Comments (2)

Up 6 Down 0

ProScience Greenie on May 25, 2017 at 4:12 pm

Err, jc, lots of FN folks work there. Some FN people are econuts but lots support mining and work in mining everywhere in Canada which is awesome.

Up 5 Down 11

jc on May 23, 2017 at 8:59 pm

Well, I guess the evironnuts and FN will work to shut the mine down now.

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