Three Die In Flooded Quebec Gold Mine

Three men have died in Metanor Resources’ (MTO-V, MEAOF-O) Bachelor Lake gold mine, near Desmeraisville, Que.

Bruno Goulet, 36, Domenico Bollini, 44, and Marc Guay, 31, were doing repair work underground on Friday, Oct. 30, when they went missing. A Metanor spokesperson was unavailable for comment.

According to news reports, the men were last heard from around 11:30 p. m. when they signalled to the shaft elevator operator to lower the elevator cage from the sixth level to the twelfth level — the bottom of the mine. The mine is about 550 metres deep.

The operator became worried when he didn’t hear anything and pulled up the cage to find it empty with the door open.

It then became apparent that in both the 11th and 12th levels of the mine were flooded. Water pumps are continually drawing out water. Normally, an alarm system would have alerted the mine workers of the flooding. It’s uncertain whether the alarm system was working or whether it malfunctioned.

Extra pumps were brought in to dewater the mine so rescuers could look for the men. The bodies weren’t found until Monday, Nov. 2. Over the weekend, a Metanor spokesman had said he was hopeful that the men had found an air pocket, but as time passed the chance of finding them alive became slim. The three men have a total of five children between them.

Quebec provincial police and the workers health and safety commission are conducting an investigation into the accident.

All mining operations have been suspended.

Metanor bought the Bachelor Lake mine from Campbell Resources in 2004 with the intention of putting the mine back into production. The mine produced about 130,000 oz. gold in the 1980s but was in need of work. The company got started by refurbishing the mill and processing ore from the nearby Barry open pit in 2008. Metanor aims to put the higher-grade underground mine back into production by next summer, after upgrades are completed, increasing production to 70,000 oz. gold per year.

Metanor shares fell nearly 22% on Nov. 2, or 12.5¢, to 45.5¢ each on a trading volume of 4.6 million shares.

The stock bounced back to 52¢ the following day on 1.1 million shares traded.