Vale Canada Limited has been fined $1 million after a worker at its plant near Sudbury, Ont. was killed and another was injured while trying to clear a jam in a rock-crushing machine.
The mining company pleaded guilty to failing to ensure that gravity-stored energy was dissipated or contained while work was being done on the crusher, and to failing to provide information, instruction and supervision to a worker on a safe procedure to remove a broken piece of machinery from the crusher.
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It also pleaded guilty to failing to ensure that pinch points were guarded on the conveyor and crusher, though these offences were not related to the death or injury.
READ MORE: Vale Sudbury under investigation for possibly decades of toxic run-off
The incident took place at the company’s rock-crushing facility on April 6. 2014, when the workers tried to use a cutting torch to deal with the jam in the rock-crushing machine.
The heat from the torch softened the steel of a piece of machinery known as a moil point, reducing friction and propelling the moil point towards the workers, hitting both of them. One died and the other suffered critical injuries.
A supervisor who was acting as a worker that day also pleaded guilty to failing to work in compliance with Ontario’s mining regulation and was fined $3,000 for his role in the failed attempt to remove the moil point.
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