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On the morning of October 10, just after participating in celebrations around the company’s annual Global Safety Day, the De Beers Group Victor Mine team rose to an unusual challenge that tested their response to an emergency.
At 10:20 AM, Al Collins, Victor Mine Site Superintendent, received an emergency request for assistance from Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Trenton regarding two hot air balloonists who were reported to have blown off course and forced to make an emergency landing in the muskeg in northern Ontario, 100 km west of the remote mine site. The balloonists, an American resident and Polish resident, were competing in the 23rd Annual America’s Challenge Gas Balloon race headquartered in Albuquerque, New Mexico and were racing to Duluth, Minnesota.
Upon receiving their distress call, CFB Trenton sent out calls to all available aircraft nearby, but because the Victor Mine was closest to the scene they were asked to assist should they have the availability of an aircraft and support people. Fortunately, a helicopter used for environmental work was already stationed at the remote fly-in/fly-out site. The team mobilized quickly and sent an emergency-response trained Victor Mine employee and a member of the Protective Services team to the location to rescue the stranded balloonists.
Just an hour after the helicopter departed the mine site, the two balloonists were retrieved safe and unharmed. The helicopter then returned to the mine site where the pair were given food and the chance to shower and change before boarding a regularly scheduled charter for employees of Attawapiskat Catering Limited Partnership (ACLP), the housekeeping and catering contractor at the mine, which would take the balloonists on to Timmins.
“We are extremely proud of our Victor Mine team for their quick and professional action to what could have been a very serious situation,” said Al Collins. “Weather in this remote northern region can be quite harsh this time of year, but fortunately everything went well and we have a happy ending.”
“The management team here at Victor Mine couldn’t believe what was transpiring especially since it happened to be Global Safety Day, where we gather to discuss our commitments to safety and how we are all the strongest link in the chain,” said Brian Kilbride, Asset Site Manager at Victor Mine. “Today we joined together with employees, our contractors and CFB Trenton to ensure the efficient, safe rescue of these men who otherwise may have had to wait hours to be rescued.”
The Victor Mine, Ontario’s first and only diamond mine, which ended operations in May of this year, is a multiple award winner for safety, including two national John T. Ryan Awards as the safest mine in Canada in 2015 and 2016.