Appeal court orders new trial into Belmoral deaths of 1980

There was good news and bad news at Belmoral Mines’ annual Christmas party in Val d’Or, Que. The good news was the company’s first anniversary out of receivership: the bad news was a Supreme Court of Quebec decision ordering a new trial regarding a 1980 cave-in that killed eight miners at the Belmoral gold mine. A year after the deaths, Belmoral was charged with criminal negligence following a Royal commission enquiry into the fatalities. The Beaudry commission said the accident was foreseeable and accused Belmoral of putting profits before safety.

Since then the company was acquitted by a jury of all eight charges, several civil suits involving the cave-in have been settled and the company has undergone a major reorganization.

The Crown appealed the acquittal, however, based on the trial judge’s charge to the jury. The appeal was heard Oct 14 of this year and in mid-December the appeal court handed down its unanimous decision ordering a new trial (the appeal court cannot overturn a jury’s decision but can only uphold the original decision or order a new trial.)

Belmoral may now seek to appeal that decision to the Supreme Court of Canada, but such an appeal is not automatic — the federal supreme court must give permission to appeal.

Kenneth Dalton, executive vice- president and chief financial officer for Belmoral, says senior management and the company’s Montreal lawyers will meet early in January to discuss alternative courses of action.

“It will cost a lot more money to go through a new trial than an appeal,” says Mr Dalton. However, Belmoral could try to appeal and lose, then still face the prospect of a new trial.

It’s possible that the company could accept the decision to have a new trial and change its plea to guilty in order to avoid the time- consuming and costly litigation. However, that’s an alternative Mr Dalton would not comment on. He says the appeal court’s decision will have “no effect whatsoever” on operations and, even if all further decisions in the case go against it, the result would not have a material effect on the company.

“We can handle it,” he says.

The appeal court’s decision and possible future court decisions will not affect the company’s mining methods, its claim holdings or licences. In fact, other than court costs, the most severe potential outcome facing the company is a fine to be determined by the trial court. No individuals were named in the charges.

The effect of rehabilitating the mine immediately after the cave-in, cost Belmoral about $5.4 million.

The appeal court’s decision may affect the public’s perception of the company and in fact has already resulted in a 17% drop in the company’s share price immediately following the announcement of the decision. However, Mr Dalton says financial results “will overcome” that perception.

For example the company’s two mines are operating at a profit and the company has turned a net profit during the 3-month period ended Sept 30, its first quarterly profit in three years.

At the mine site for the Christmas party, Mr Dalton said morale was excellent. While the appeal court’s decision was a hot topic of conversation, the over-all feeling of optimism arose from the company’s operations having been in the hands of management for a full year.

For Belmoral, that’s quite an achievement. Many of the workers at the mine and much of middle- management have been with the company through all its problems of which the cave-in and the subsequent litigation was only one facet. In 1982 the company also went into receivership for three years due to financial problems.

A major refinancing at the end of 1985 put operations back into the company’s hands.

Prior to that, the receiver had been operating in a mine-out mode apparently with the intention of recouping as much of the creditors’ loans as possible with little thought to maintaining a mining operation.

As a result, morale at the mine was at a low ebb.

Since the reorganization eliminated the company’s debt, however, a great deal of emphasis has been placed on increasing reserves for the mine’s future and on mine development in order to get at those new reserves.

As a result, morale is much improved with the feeling that “we’re in the mining business to stay,” according to a spokesman for the company.

Other than a 6-month shutdown immediately following the disaster in May, 1980, the company’s two gold mines at Val d’Or have been in continuous operation. In fact, since the cave-in, the mine has won a number of safety awards and is safer than the average Quebec mine as measured by lost-time injuries per man-hours worked.