Legislative Library, OT.
Parliament Buildings, 0
Victoria, B.C.

V8V 1X4

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 14, 1989
- Vol. 5, Issue No. 24

Phone 635-7840 ,
Fax 635-7269

| error underground a.
Witness tells story
of mine explosion |

_ Following the coroner’s inquiry in Terrace last week
into an explosion at Newhawk Gold’s Sulphurets mine
| site north of Stewart that occurred in February, a jury
has called the death of two miners homicide and asked
the RCMP to continue their investigation into the cause
of the incident. The jury also recommended that the
B.C. Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum
Resources examine procedures for the storing and
handling of explosives, and that Newhark be required to

_ This isn’t Terrace’s latest resource boom.
_ A crew from Peace River Drilling of Prince
George actually were drilling for oil in this
vacant lot in the 4500 block Lakelse Ave.,
but they were hoping they wouldn’t find
any.

‘The lot is the site of an abandoned ser-
vice station formerly operated by Chevron
Canada Ltd., who still own the property.
They’ ve confirmed that a sale to an
unidentified local party is in the works,

‘ and that’s why they-hired the drillers, — .
_: Waste Mariagement Branch regulations
-. réquire that lots occupied by gas stations
have to undergo environmental assessment
before they can be sold for certain types of
applications. Fred Moore of Chevron’s
‘property management division said, “We

. dant?’.

_ ongoing program for abandoned Chevron
sites, ‘Moore did say, ‘*We're talking with
‘some local folks’* about sale of the fot.

want to satisfy ourselves and the Waste
Management Branch, so we’ll wait for the
results and take action if necessary.”
Moore said the station was shut down
more than 10 years ago after the Dudley
G. Little Bridge opened, redirecting traffic
flow and making the gas outlet ‘‘redun-

~ Although he indicated that the environ-
mental assessment is part of a general

The Peace River Drilling crew said the
soil samples they punched through the
asphalt to get will be setit toa laboratory
in Edmonton for analysis.

_institute a mine safety program at the mine site.

by Tod Strachan -

The inquiry was presided aver

by. : torthern. regional, coroner —
~ John: Wolsey: of Prince George: .’ |

The. explosion occurred short-
ly after 1 p.m. on Feb. 2 when a
powder magazine containing
about 1,000 pounds of dynamite
exploded, Killed were Newhawk
underground supervisor Claude
Weber of Richmond and a
Canadian Mines Development
supervisor, Otto Sawatsky of
Winnipeg. Three other miners
were injured and transferred to
Stewart by helicopter. It was
reported that the 72-kilometer
flight to Stewart -was a
dangerous operation in itself —
winds were gusting between 30
and 60 miles per hour at the
time.

Two of the injured were
treated and released in Stewart,
but 20-year-old Mike Anderson
of Terrace, a chip sampler at the
Sulphurets, suffered fractures of
his right leg, ankle and cheek
bone and was transferred to
Mills Memorial Hospital a few
hours later. He was released a
week afterward but is still

‘| unable to return to work.

Earlier this week, Anderson
described the explosion and life
at the Newhawk mine site to the
Terrace Review. Transportation
into the site was at one time by
helicopter, but now workers are
flown in to the nearby Brucejack
Camp by DC-3 propeller air-
craft, From there, it’s a 14-mile
drive to the mine site — the
Knipple Camp. Workers live in
Atco trailers and work seven
days a week, on four-week rota-
tions. This is followed by two
weeks out, There are two shifts
per day, and in their ‘‘off-time”
workers read, talk or watch

MIKE ANDERSON:
work underground again.

Never

questionable quality satellite TV
— there are no recreation
facilities. ‘‘They’ve promised

that for months,’’ says Ander- .

son.

Everything seemed normal on
the morning of Feb. 2; Ander-
son said, and at noon workers
left the mine for a lunch break.
At about 1:15 they returned to
work. Anderson says he was
among the first to return to the
mine on the uppermost of four
levels of tunnels and smelled an
unusual odor, A short time
later, Weber entered the mine
with chip sampler Mike Cassidy
— a resident of Vancouver. He
told Cassidy that the odor was a

fuse burning but seemed un-

concerned.

Weber met Sawatsky near a
turn in the tunnel, and leaving
Anderson and Cassidy to collect
samples, the pair continued
walking and rounded the bend in
the tunnel. Weber was apparent-
ly on his way to check on a rock
driller about 800 feet away at the

continued on page 25

Shopping center project set back a year _ page 2

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