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The De Beers Group Victor Mine in northern Ontario is proud to receive its fourth consecutive John T. Ryan Award for safety, announced at the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy, and Petroleum Convention Awards Gala in Montreal.

Ontario’s first and only diamond mine, Victor Mine captured the Eastern Regional Award for Select Mines for its safety performance during 2018. Victor Mine also received the Eastern Regional Award for Select Mines for 2017 and won the National John T. Ryan Award for Select Mines in both 2015 and 2016.

During 2018, 93% of all days worked at the mine were injury-free.

“The strong safety performance reflects the high level of teamwork and care by all members of the Victor Mine team and continues a tradition of excellence that has been the cornerstone of our Canadian operations,” said Kim Truter, CEO – De Beers Canada. “To achieve this level of success during the mine’s final full year of operation is a testament to the resilient safety culture established throughout the mine’s life.”

Victor Mine is expected to cease production later this month when ore stockpiles are exhausted. Mining finished in the pit in early March.

“Once we informed the mine would be closing in 2019, our number one goal as a team was to win the John T. Ryan Award in our final full year to cement our legacy as one of safest mines in Canadian history, and that’s what we did,” said Alistair Skinner, Manager – Operations, Victor Mine. “Our exceptional safety performance also allowed us to recover a record number of diamonds last year at Victor Mine, an incredible production accomplishment considering the change management avictornd employee and contractor turnover that took place to position the mine for the end of operations and the formal start to closure. Everyone stepped up each and every task.”

Victor Mine also received a Workplace Excellence Award in April from Workplace Safety North, an independent health and safety association that provides services to mining and forest products industries and other businesses across northern Ontario.

To support employee attention to working safely, the team introduced a number of initiatives, including continuing to focus on near hit reporting, introduction of a program to reward individual employees for their safety performance, and a mid-afternoon “Safety Huddle.” The five-minute “Huddle” took place between 2:30-3:30 p.m., a time that statistics showed most incidents tended to occur.

Over the 11 years of operations, Victor Mine received more than a dozen awards that recognized safety excellence by the operation or its employees.