Daniel MacIsaac
Northern News Services

NNSL (Mar 12/99) - Saying mining companies must understand it's more cost effective to spend money on cleanup before they receive a court order to do so, Judge Robert Bourassa levied fines of $15,000 against two mining companies last week.

Both Treminco Resources Ltd. and Ptarmigan Mines Limited had already pleaded guilty to storing explosives in an unlocked magazine, in violation to the Mine Health and Safety Act, and appeared in court last Wednesday for sentencing.

Crown counsel Alan Regal described how the charges stemmed from an inspection carried out in the summer of 1997 by the Workers' Compensation Board.

Regal said that the Vancouver-based Treminco Resources Ltd. began operating the Ptarmigan mine and Tom mine outside Yellowknife through its extra-territorial subsidiary Ptarmigan Mines Limited in the mid-1980s.

Regal said that because of the falling price of gold, in early 1997 Treminco determined it was no longer economically viable to continue operations, and Len Palmer, manager for both mines, sent a letter informing the Workers' Compensation Board that the mines would be placed in care and maintenance.

Regal said that though Palmer confirmed WCB orders to remove all explosives, blasting caps and detonation cores, inspectors discovered Aug. 22 that orders had not been carried out.

Regal said on the Ptarmigan and Tom sites, inspectors found soggy sticks of gelatin explosive and, in unlocked magazines, no-nail detonators and sticks of dynamite. Regal said that among the aggravating circumstances in the case was the fact that the unlocked magazine on the Tom site was located less than a kilometre from a public playground.

Defence counsel James Posynick put Treminco corporate secretary Stewart Wooldridge on the witness stand to explain the companies' actions. Wooldridge told the court of Treminco's financial woes and of the misunderstanding between mine manager Palmer and his staff in failing to carry out inspections.

Wooldridge said Treminco has since introduced safety committees in its operations, "to make sure this couldn't happen again." He said, considering Treminco's clean-up costs and lack of income, he didn't know when a fine could be paid.

But besides expressing concern for the danger the explosives would have caused any inquisitive children, Judge Bourassa also pointed to the money the companies produced while operating -- a total of 110,000 ounces of gold while active, or roughly $44 million.

"Shareholders made money, the operators made money, but the mess is left for the NWT to clean up," said Bourassa, "$44 million is a lot of money they made from the ground of the Northwest Territories."