An inquest jury heard Sept. 22 that a man working for a Sudbury-based mining contractor spent his last moments gasping for breath, partially buried and pinned against a steel railing by muck, which was uncharacteristically muddy and wet.
Edouard Gallant, 64, was working for SCR Mining and Tunnelling completing a job at the Lac des Iles Mine, located 90 minutes northwest of Thunder Bay. SCR had been hired by mine-owner Impala Canada to repair the ore passes, near-vertical tunnels used to transport muck — small pieces of blasted rock.
The passes needed rehabilitation, and while they were still filled with muck, the SCR employees would use specialized equipment to enter the pass and use the muck as a platform, said inquest counsel Jai Dhar in his opening.
“In other words, they stood on it while they were doing their work, and while they were standing inside the ore pass, they would work on the interior walls, and they would apply a product called shotcrete onto the walls.”
Shotcrete is a type of concrete that is sprayed onto the surface using a handheld nozzle, said Dhar.
SCR employees did the work in six-foot sections, the inquest heard, and “each time they finished a section, they would exit the ore pass, and then muck would be evacuated out of the bottom of that ore pass,” said Dhar. “From below, this would expose the next section of the wall inside the ore pass as that pile of muck then lowered by six feet. The workers would then re-enter the ore pass and continue that work.”
It’s work that continued without major issue, said Dhar, “until May 27, 2020.”
“Workers were trying to draw down the pile of muck inside the ore pass to expose that next section of the wall, but the pile of muck was not lowering as much as expected,” said Dhar in his opening. “While they were working on this, the material in the ore pass suddenly and unexpectedly dropped, overwhelming the protective gates that were designed to hold it back.
To the surprise of the workers, Dhar told the court, the material that flowed out of the ore pass did not look like usual muck. Instead, “the material was muddy and wet.”
This mix of water, muck and shotcrete entered an open work area known as a loading pocket, where Gallant was standing and using a radio to pass messages to the work crews about how much to evacuate from the overpass, said Dhar.
“The material from the ore pass flowed into the loading pocket, partially burying Mr. Gallant and pinning him against a steel railing,” said Dhar in his opening. “Several workers, including a mine rescue team, attended and were eventually able to extricate him, they administered first aid, transported him to the surface, and he was put into an ambulance for transport to hospital. Emergency Medical Services took over en route, but determined that he could not be saved. He was pronounced deceased in the ambulance.”
Gallant’s longtime friend and fellow miner, Charles Laforge, testified at the end of the first day of the inquest to his attempts to help his friend that day.
“I’ve worked in mines for 42 years, I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said of the texture of the muck.
Inquest witness Derek Wilkins testified most of the day. He was an underground foreman for Impala at the time of Gallant’s death, and testified to his attempts to free Gallant when he became trapped, as well as leading the jury through the technical details of the repair to the ore passes and a detailed explanation of the mechanics of the ore-pass system.
Wilkins said several times during his testimony that he was thankful for the quick thinking of Laforge during the rescue.
“The muck, it wasn’t rocks where we could grab them and throw the rocks away to dig out. It was basically trying to shovel through it, which was very, very hard to do,” said Wilkins.
“It wasn't until Charlie LaForge came and brought the water hose, and we made great progress because of the consistency of the material, the water is able to wash it away.”
Wilkins testified the cause of the unexpected drop is called a “hang up.”
The unusual texture of the muck caused the heavier muck to sink to the bottom and the more muddy, watery contents to stay at the top, resulting in the formation of an air gap known as a “hang up.”
The muck flowed too fast down the pass, and overwhelmed the systems that should catch it, and the overflow covered Gallant.
The pathologist ultimately determined that the cause of death was positional asphyxia from the pressure of being pinned against the railing by the unusually textured muck.
The inquest jurors are instructed to answer five questions: who was the deceased; when did they die; where did they die; what was the medical cause of death, and; what was the manner of death. This information is provided to them by the evidence from a post-mortem investigation. Inquest jurors are asked to determine five possible classifications: natural disease, accidental death, suicide, homicide or undetermined.
And while inquests are held to inform the public about the circumstances of a death and to make recommendations on preventative measures in the future, they are not held with the aim of placing blame.
“I encourage you, when listening to the evidence, not to focus too much on whether something could or should have been done differently, but rather on whether things could be done differently in the future,” said Dhar.
He said inquest parties with standing will identify potential recommendations to present to the jury for consideration, “and it'll be up to you to decide whether to make any of those recommendations, or if you have any of your own recommendations.”
Inquest parties given standing to question the inquest witnesses including counsel for the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development, Gallant’s employer, SCR Mines Technology, and Impala Canada, which owns the mine.
Impala Canada was fined a total of $350,000 in 2023 for this fatality and another incident in 2020 that critically injured a worker at the mine.
The Lac des Iles Mine is set to close in May 2026. Impala is blaming it on lagging palladium prices.
Seven witness are expected to testify. The entire inquest will be conducted by video conference. Members of the public who wish to view the proceedings can do so live at the link provided here.
Who was Edouard Gallant?
At the centre of the inquest is the victim himself. Edouard Gallant was a 64-year-old husband, father and grandfather from Dunlop, NB.
Born in Moncton in 1955, Gallant is survived by his wife, Constance, son Ricky, daughter Stéphanie and four grandchildren, Julie, Patrick, Xavier and Cassandra. He is also survived by five brothers and seven sisters.
“Edouard worked for over 30 years in the mines,” his obituary states. “He was a much-loved colleague and mentor. He adored and cherished his little family, who will miss him greatly.”
Jenny Lamothe covers court for Sudbury.com.