Underground operations resume at New Afton after deadly mudslide

New Gold (TSX, NYSE: NGD) announces that partial underground operations have resumed over the weekend at the New Afton gold-copper mine in Kamloops, British Columbia, following the underground mudslide that killed one worker and injured two on Feb. 2, 2021.

“The restarting of mining activities is a significant step for the New Afton Mine as we continue our safe and sequential return to full operations,” said Renaud Adams, New Gold president and CEO.

The extraction of ore has resumed on Lift 1 at limited capacity that includes a portion of the recovery level on a remote mucking basis.

B3 and C-Zone development activities have returned to normal levels.

The area where the incident occurred will remain closed until further notice.

Milling, tailings operations and construction activities resumed late last week. The mill is currently processing ore from the live pile and intermediate-grade surface stockpile, which is expected to supply sufficient volume to feed the mill until full operations have resumed.

With an average production rate of about 16,000 tonnes per day, New Afton is touted as the largest daily tonnage underground hard rock mine in Canada.

This story first appeared on www.MINING.com.