De Beers’ Victor mine, Ontario’s first and only diamond mine, is the recipient of the national John T. Ryan Award for 2015, Canada’s most celebrated award for mine safety. The award was presented this week at the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) Awards Gala in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The Victor mine received the award in the Select Mines category in recognition of its outstanding safety performance in 2015. During the year, the Victor mine team had zero Lost Time Incidents (LTIs) and recorded the lowest overall reportable injury rate among all mines in Ontario.
Kim Truter, De Beers CEO, Canada, congratulated the Victor team for their outstanding safety performance. “I am extremely proud of the Victor Mine team, who consistently demonstrate safety leadership for not only De Beers in Canada, but for De Beers and Anglo American around the world,” Truter said. “This prestigious award is a testament to their ongoing commitment to mining diamonds safely and without harm to people or the environment.”
Victor mine General Manager James Kirby, who accepted the award on behalf of the team, said this award is the result of De Beers employees and contract partners taking individual responsibility for all areas of safety and addressing them before an incident happens.
“From veterans to new employees, the positive and proactive safety culture is embedded across all aspects of the mine where everyone understands if a task can’t be done safety, we’ll stop and make it safe. It’s not just De Beers’ employees who are living up to this commitment, but also our contract partners who share this recognition as we pull together as one team to make our workplace safe for all.”
The J.T. Ryan Award has been awarded annually since 1941. The De Beers Victor mine is a remote fly-in/fly-out open-pit operation in the James Bay Lowlands in northern Ontario, and one of just two remote mines in the province.
