Thirty-nine workers at a mine in eastern Canada have been stuck underground since Sunday afternoon after an incident that cut off access to the main exit, the Vale group, owner of the mine, explained Monday (September 27th). .
None of the miners were injured and they were given access to food and water, added the group, which hopes to be able to evacuate them by Monday evening.
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“The rescue team reached the minors and began to evacuate them towards a secondary exit via a ladder system
,
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the Brazilian company Vale said in a statement.
“No one was on the main transportation system when the incident occurred,”
Vale spokesperson Danica Pagnutti told Radio Canada.
She said a piece of heavy equipment had collided with the elevator of this system.
"We know that the rescue operation will take time and we are relieved to learn that no minors are injured,"
Doug Ford, Premier of Ontario, the province in which is located, said on Twitter. the mine.
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All operations at the Totten, Sudbury site have been shut down since Sunday and the group says it will conduct an assessment before resuming production.
This mine had closed in 1972 but Vale carried out work and reopened it in 2014. During the first six months of 2021, some 3,600 tonnes of finished nickel were extracted.
