Diavik pleads guilty, will pay $144K fine after worker injured at N.W.T. mine

Diavik Diamond Mine Inc. will pay a fine of $143,750 after pleading guilty to a workplace safety charge related to the serious injury of a mine worker in 2023.

In a news release Thursday, the N.W.T.'s Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission said the mining company has been issued a $125,000 fine, plus a victim fine surcharge of 15 per cent — which works out to an additional $18,750 — for failing to ensure safe work practices.

The company pleaded guilty to that charge Wednesday in Yellowknife.

The commission said on Jan. 26, 2023, a worker at the mine had his left hand pulled into a rockfill mixer (which combines rock and cement) that he was in the process of cleaning, after the hose he was using dropped into the machine. The general work practice at the time was to open the machine, slow it down and spray the inside with a hose.

The worker "suffered a severe hand injury" as a result, the commission wrote.

"There were no guards or safety measures implemented to ensure that workers could not get caught in the moving parts," the commission wrote Thursday.

The commission said Diavik co-operated with the investigation and has since reviewed its standard operating procedures, trained all workers on those procedures, and reaffirmed that equipment should be locked out before cleaning.

Three other charges the commission had initially laid against Diavik related to this case have been stayed.