Donkin mine was shut down a year ago. There's still no sign of when it will reopen

The underground Donkin coal mine remains closed one year after heavy rock fell from the roof of the main access tunnel, and there is no indication when or if it will reopen.

Nova Scotia's Labour Department issued a stop-work order at the mine on July 15, 2023, but fully lifted the order four months ago. Yet the mine has remained idled.

Documents released under a freedom of information request show the province issued several warnings and orders following an inspection in March, one day after the mine was fully cleared to return to operation.

However, the issues were not serious and mine owner Kameron Coal made all the necessary fixes by April, said Scott Nauss, senior executive director of safety with the Labour Department.

Inspectors were surprised in March to find that some equipment had been moved out of the mine and sent to another work site in Alberta, but Nauss said he cannot say what kind of equipment was moved, due to privacy reasons.

"I can say, though, that it does not impact the safety of anybody that's performing maintenance activities or care and control of the mine," he said.

The mine owner has kept a small crew working to maintain air handling systems and mechanical and electrical equipment.

The latest inspections found issues with equipment, air monitoring and electrical cables, but Nauss said they were all addressed and no penalties were levied.

One inspection found calibration failed on some air monitors for oxygen, methane and carbon monoxide, and that mercury sampling was not done.

Nauss said those were not a major concern, and because the mine is not operating, inspectors are mostly interested in the areas where maintenance crews are working.

"There's a greater level of scrutiny when the mine is in operation and miners are exposed to hazards ... underground," he said.

One inspection report listed readings from more than 600 tell-tales, which are bolts driven into the roof that measure movement and help predict roof falls.

About 15 per cent of them were listed as either damaged or unreadable. In one case, the tell-tale was unreadable because "loose rock" had fallen around it.

Nauss said many of those were in areas of the mine that are no longer in production because of unstable geology, and workers would not be found in those sections except to monitor the tell-tales.

The documents also reveal a list of approved variations from provincial mining regulations, including one that allows the company to have an open-flame heater underground.

Nauss said variations to regulations are routinely approved, especially as technology improves over time, but only if the variation provides an equal or greater level of safety than the established rules.

Critics of the province have said Kameron Coal is holding off on reopening the mine, trying to get a guarantee that future stop-work orders will not result in a lengthy work stoppage.

Nauss said that's not going to happen.

"There's lives of these miners at stake and we're not willing to compromise on safety," he said.

"We do our best to minimize business interruptions, but at the end of the day we're responsible as a regulator and we're going to do that job to the best of our abilities."

Mine owner Kameron Coal does not typically respond to media and did not respond to a request for comment last week.

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