Mystery surrounds Ekati fire
No injuries reported at diamond mine facility; impact on operations unclear
Shane Magee
Northern News Services
Monday, June 27, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The cause of a fire last week at the Ekati Diamond Mine processing plant remains unclear with Dominion Diamond Corporation offering little additional information about what happened.
The company confirmed in a news release a fire broke out around 7 a.m. on June 23 in the plant that processes ore extracted at the mine site about 320 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife.
The fire started during what the company called a "planned outage" at the plant.
The release stated the company activated its incident management team and its emergency response team responded.
"All personnel were evacuated from the process plant and have been accounted for. At this time, no injuries have been reported," the release stated.
The fire was extinguished, though a Dominion spokesperson did not specify how quickly after it began.
"We commend the outstanding work of our emergency response teams," Laura Worsley-Brown stated in an e-mail the day after the fire.
News/North posed a dozen questions about the fire, its cause, the extent of the damage and impact on mine operations. Most questions were left unanswered.
"We are currently assessing the extent of the damage in order to determine the nature of repairs required and also estimate the expected down time in the process plant. Mining activities are not affected and continue as normal," Worsley-Brown stated.
The NWT Office of the Fire Marshal was notified of the fire, said acting fire marshal Anthony Ondrack.
"The investigation is still ongoing,"he said last week, adding he had no information about the cause of the fire.
He said the fire marshal's office would send someone to the site only if a more detailed investigation is required than the one being carried out by company officials, or if the office is requested to attend.
The processing plant can handle 4.3 million tonnes of ore from the mine per year, according to Dominion's website.
It processes the ore through crushing, screening and scrubbing to separate waste material from the diamonds.
Ondrack said he was told the fire involved a "screen deck" at the plant but had no estimate of the damage.
The site had a workforce of 1,413 of the end of January last year, according to Dominion. More than half of those are Dominion employees, while the remainder are contractors.
Earlier this month, Dominion reported changes to plans for production at the mine site that would allow construction of its Jay pipe to be pushed back.
Ekati began production in 1998 and is both an above and underground mine.
