Tue 28 September 2021:
According to their employer, the first of dozens of miners stuck underground for more than 24 hours following an incident at a mine in northern Ontario began returning to the surface late Monday.
An official with mining company Vale, Gord Gilpin, said in a statement that they were “relieved and delighted to see these individuals returning to surface safe and sound.”
Vale announced earlier in the day that a rescue crew had reached the 39 miners at Totten Mine, located approximately 40 kilometers west of Sudbury, Ont., who were in various different “refuges” between 900 and 1,200 meters underground.
No one was hurt, and Vale said all 39 workers would be back on the surface in the next few hours.
The company said the workers became stuck after a scoop bucket being transported underground on Sunday detached and became hung up in the shaft, rendering normal conveyance for transporting employees unavailable.
The mine employs nearly 200 people and produces copper, nickel, and precious metals.
The trapped miners, according to the company, had access to food, water, and medicine. Some of the trapped miners, according to a United Steelworkers official, need insulin.
The mine is located near Sudbury, with a population of about 165,000 and is about four hours north of Toronto. The Totten mine produce copper, nickel, cobalt, platinum, gold and silver, and has about 200 employees, according to the company.
The company website states that Vale has been operating mines in Sudbury for more than 100 years. It has five mines, a mill, smelter, refinery and almost 4,000 employees, making it one of the largest integrated mining complexes in the world.
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