Miner dies at Lake Shore’s Timmins mine

Lake Shore Gold’s (LSG-T, LSG-X) share price continues to slide following the death of a miner at its newly producing Timmins West gold mine on April 2.

Miner Trevor King, 26, was fatally injured while working in a development heading underground at the Timmins mine. He was struck by a piece of rock while loading a development round on the 730-metre level of the mine, the company’s senior vice-president of operations, Dan Gagnon, explained in a statement.

He was brought to surface and taken to hospital, William Lin, a spokesperson with the Ministry of Labour, which is currently investigating the death, told local media.

King, a native of Larder Lake, Ont., was with the company for more than a year.

“This is a tragic event and loss,” Lake Shore’s president and CEO, Tony Makuch, said in a statement, offering his condolences to King’s family, friends and fellow workers.

The junior says it will not disclose further details as the accident is still under investigation by the Ministry of Labour, the Timmins Police and the company’s health and safety committee.

Following the incident, the company provided support to King’s family and counselling to its employees.

In a brief interview, Makuch told The Northern Miner that workers returned to work on April 4 to reflect on the accident from a safety perspective. “It’s a small family. He was one of our own,” he says of King. He added production will resume the next day.

This is the first fatality for the company, which also operates the Bell Creek gold mine in Timmins.

However, King’s death marks the sixth mining fatality in Ontario’s northeast in the past two years, and the eleventh in the past five years for the province, the CBC reports.

Lake Shore began commercial production at the Timmins mine, which includes the Timmins and Thunder Creek deposits, last January.

Since the news of the death, the company’s shares slid over 18%, reversing the 12% gain it made on the recent reserves update for the Timmins mine.

Reserves at the Timmins mine stand at 823,848 oz. from 4.9 million tonnes grading 5.21 grams gold per tonne.

Lake Shore touched a new 52-week low of 93¢ on April 4 before closing the day at 97¢.

It shares dipped another 2¢ the next day on the company’s first quarter financials.

For quarter, the company sold 18,400 oz. gold at an average price of US$1,690 per oz., compared with the 33,954 oz. sold at US$1,387 per oz., a year ago.

Lake Shore produced 16, 680 oz. gold from 160,500 tonnes grading 3.40 grams gold for the quarter, down from the 22,328 oz. from 148,400 oz. at 4.89 grams, a year ago.

However, the company points out that the gold poured during the period exceeds guidance of 15,000 oz.

The company has reiterated its 2012 production forecast of 85,000 and 100,000 oz. gold at cash costs of US$825 to US$875 per oz.