Blizzard hampers search for employee missing near Nunavut mine project

The Meliadine exploration camp near Rankin Inlet, in an aerial photo taken in 2011. (PHOTO COURTESY OF AEM)

Despite blizzard conditions, the search continues for an Agnico Eagle subcontractor who was lost on May 14, off a marked about three-kilometre trail southwest of the Meliadine gold mine project near Rankin Inlet.

The drill worker was reported missing in the morning at about 7 a.m. after he failed to reach a drill site that the man and three co-workers were travelling to during a change of shift, said Dale Coffin, corporate director of communications for Agnico Eagle.

The man, from Ontario, is an employee of drilling contractor Boart Longyear, said Coffin, adding he could not identify the employee by name.

The man was travelling behind his co-workers by snowmobile to the work site located three km from the Meliadine project, Coffin said.

“They arrived —and he was behind them — and he failed to arrive at the drill rig,” he said. “Details and circumstances are unknown to us at this time.”

Agnico Eagle and Boart Longyear employees continued to conduct the search in four alternating teams of about eight employees on May 15, Coffin said, even though blizzard conditions had started that day.

The blizzard has slowed the progress of the search, delaying the use of a helicopter to assist.

Environment Canada continued to report blizzard conditions in the region during the afternoon of May 15, with snowfall accumulation of 15 centimetres and winds gusting to 60.

The RCMP detachment and volunteer searchers from Rankin Inlet, located about 24 km south of the Meliadine camp, have also assisted in the search effort.

“We’re limited by the [weather] conditions out there,” Coffin said from Agnico Eagle’s head office in Toronto. “But rest assured, we are doing everything within our power. As soon as the weather clears we’ll have a helicopter in the air to assist.”

Coffin said the mining company is working with Boart Longyear to maintain contact with the lost man’s family.