An Ontario company has been fined $300,000 in connection with the 2021 death of a contract worker at a gold mine in the province.

Williams Operating Corporation pled guilty in the case in provincial offences court and was convicted last month on Nov. 15.

The fatal incident occurred at a mine in Hemlo, Ont., about 370 km north of Sault Ste. Marie, on July 14, 2021.

The mine is owned by Barrick Gold and operated by Williams Operating Corporation.

The incident was detailed in a news release issued by the Ministry of Labour Friday.

According to the ministry, power to the underground portion of the mine had been restored after a full-day shutdown for maintenance to underground systems.

A contractor was in the process of making sure that there were no people or obstructions in an automated area of the mine where workers aren’t usually allowed to go.

The worker got a call advising that one of the automatic gates in the area needed to be reset and went to do so. But he was fatally injured while trying to go through access doors to the reset area.

Barrack previously identified the worker as an employee of Barminco — a subsidiary of underground mining services company Perenti.

Hemlo

Other doors in the mine were set to default to an open position following a power outage. However the access doors to the area in question somehow had the reverse setting, defaulting to a closed position after the outage.

“In these circumstances, Williams failed as an employer to ensure that door controls were installed, and the installation was maintained as designed, contrary to section 25(1)(b) of the Ontario Health and Safety Act.,” the ministry said in its release.

In addition to the $300,000 fine, the court also imposed a $75,000 victim fine surcharge.