[Vale Sudbury’s] Copper Cliff Mine first to resume production – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – February 10, 2012)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Vale Ltd. is ramping up to resume production at Copper Cliff Mine this weekend, almost three weeks after production was halted at all five Sudbury mines after a Jan. 29 fatal accident at Coleman Mine in Levack.

The mines were closed for a safety pause after experienced development miner Stephen Perry, 47, was killed while operating machinery at the 4,215-foot level of the main ore body at Coleman.

The company and its employees, both union and non-union, have been working together since Perry’s death to ensure the mines are safe for about 1,550 production and maintenance workers when they return.

Vale’s Angie Robson said she expects most of the company’s mines will be back in production by the end of next week. “At Creighton Mine, we are working on some maintenance of our shaft, and expect to start production there by the last week of February,” said Robson.

Vale’s other three mines — Coleman, Garson and Stobie — will begin to be “staggered back to production next week.”

Robson said union and nonunion employees have been working on everything from general housekeeping of sites to reviewing procedures and policies. Safety work at all mines and plants has been specific to each operation, she said.

The goal of efforts by joint worker health and safety teams and staff is to bring down the risk in the mines to “ALARA, as low as reasonably achievable,” said Robson, “and that’s really where the work has been focused.

“At the end of the day, what we really strive for is zero harm,” she said. “That’s our key principle and that’s in everything we do, what we strive for.”

Robson said there has been a “real spirit of co-operation” between union and staff during the safety pause.

“Our employees have showed a lot of commitment and professionalism in coming together to put a focus on safety,” she said.
As normal operations resume, that focus on safety will continue as will co-operation.

Relations between the Brazilian- owned miner and members of United Steelworkers Local 6500 have been strained since the union’s year-long strike against the company from July 2009-10.

“We work best when it comes to safety when we work together, and I think everybody in our operation recognizes that,” said Robson.

USW Local 6500 president Rick Bertrand said emotions are still running high among his 2,600 members after the death of Perry, an affable miner originally from Corner Brook, Nfld.

Steelworkers are still affected by the deaths of two miners on the job June 8, 2011, at Stobie Mine.

“We’re all mourning, I guess you could say,” said Bertrand.

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