Dane Gibson
Northern News Services

NNSL (May 05/99) - Miramar senior vice-president of operations, Brian Labadie, said they are looking to fill 60 positions at Con mine.

The reason, he said, is because not everyone waited out the 11-month strike at the Yellowknife gold mine.

Also, to improve their cost per ounce profile, they are upping the daily tonnage from 600 to 900 tonnes. Startup has been slow, Labadie admits, but they expect to hit 600 tonnes in July, 900 in November.

"We've got some new hiring to do. Our employee roles have increased because of the increase in tonnage," Labadie said.

He added that everyone on the employee list has, or will be, called back but it's obvious there are some vacant positions. The mine at full production employs around 280.

"We had to lay off a number of salaried employees and we know some have quit. Others took positions at BHP or in other areas of the country," Labadie said.

"We're looking at hiring around 60 but it could be more. We're assuming everyone on our employee roles will come back. If that doesn't happen, we'll hire more but there are a lot of people available so we don't see that as an issue."

He was also quick to put to rest any rumours about the sale of the mine to Breakwater Resources, or anybody else.

"At this time, Miramar is not contemplating any sale of the Con mine. Our focus is on getting it up and running and getting everyone back to work," Labadie said.