Charges against Belmoral Mines (TSE) related to a mining accident 10 years ago at Val d’Or, Que., will not be pursued by the Province of Quebec, the company reports.
The May, 1980, cave-in killed eight miners at the company’s Ferderber gold mine. Belmoral was charged and the case went to trial, with the jury in 1982 acquitting the company of all charges of criminal negligence.
The Crown appealed the acquittal, and in 1986 the Quebec Court of Appeal ordered a new trial. Belmoral appealed that judgment to the Supreme Court of Canada which, in a decision last year, upheld the ruling for a new trial.
A Belmoral spokesman said the settlement with the province included modest payments on compassionate grounds by the company to the families involved.
During the decade following the disaster, Belmoral’s corporate fortunes have been up and down. The company spent about $5.4 million rehabilitating the mine after the cave-in. In 1982, in the midst of financial troubles, the company went into receivership; it regained control in 1985.
The company then seemed to fashion a turnaround, experiencing some happier years and climbing into the black. By the end of 1988, however, Belmoral was losing money again and trying to overcome production difficulties at its Val d’Or operations.
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