'I do hope that it does bring some closure to the family of Mr. Gallant and really serves that purpose of helping them feel like some positive change will happen in the future'
A coroner’s inquest into the 2020 death of miner Edouard Gallant at Impala Canada Ltd.’s Lac des Iles Mine in northwestern Ontario has issued a series of recommendations aimed at strengthening mine safety regulations, protocols, and education.
Gallant died on May 27, 2020, when he was overwhelmed by blasted ore saturated with concrete and water that breached protective barriers at the base of a mining shaft used for ore and mining waste transfer.
The jury’s recommendations, released this week, are intended to help prevent similar incidents in the future. The recommendations are directed to Impala Canada, which owns the mine; SRC Mining, Gallant’s employer; and the Ontario Ministry of Labour. These organisations have six months to respond in writing about the degree to which they have implemented the recommendations or to provide feedback on their substance.
"Obviously, opening up some of these issues, especially after this amount of time, is always difficult for families,” said Jai Dhar, the lawyer who led the proceedings for the Ontario Coroner's Office, according to a CBC report.
“But I do hope that it does bring some closure to the family of Mr. Gallant and really serves that purpose of helping them feel like some positive change will happen in the future, so that other families don't have to go through what they did."
A series of events led up to the incident. Impala Canada had identified deterioration in an ore pass, a vertical underground opening used for ore transportation within the mine. The company hired SCR Mines Technology to repair the ore pass. SCR's rehabilitation process involved scaling the walls, installing ground support, and shotcreting the ore pass walls in six-foot vertical sections.
The tragedy occurred during the repair work when an unusual amount of shotcrete rebounded off the walls, and water collected on top of the muck. On the day of the accident, SCR initiated a muck drawdown, during which an SCR worker entered the loading pocket platform to remove lockout locks to evacuate additional muck. Unfortunately, the flow of muck was not controlled by the guillotine gate, causing the muck, saturated with shotcrete, to overwhelm the protective barriers and fatally injure the worker.
It was also revealed the Lac Des Iles Mine had an underground water management plan in place, but it did not include procedures to guard against the addition and accumulation of water in ore passes during repair activities.
Impala Canada was fined $350,000 in 2023 for Gallant’s death and another 2020 incident that critically injured a worker. The Lac des Iles Mine is scheduled to close in May, with the company citing low palladium prices as the reason, according to the CBC report.
