Five workers at Hudbay’s northern Manitoba operations have tested positive for COVID-19, causing the company to temporarily suspend operations at the company’s Stall mill.
In a pair of statements issued to The Reminder, Hudbay confirmed two cases of COVID-19 had been reported at the mill April 9, with two more cases in Snow Lake reported over the weekend. One other Hudbay worker, employed at the company’s Flin Flon operations, has also tested positive. The person who tested positive in Flin Flon is described by the company as a close contact of one of the first two Snow Lake cases.
“On April 9, we became aware of two positive COVID-19 cases at our Snow Lake operations, which did not appear to be connected, along with one positive COVID-19 case at our Flin Flon operations, which was a close contact of one of the two cases from Snow Lake,” reads a Hudbay statement.
“At that point, affected individuals were in self-isolation and contact tracing had been completed by public health.”
Later, as of April 12, another two cases were confirmed at the Stall mill, including people who live in Snow Lake and Flin Flon. Several other people are now in isolation, leaving Hudbay without enough workers to keep the mill functioning.
“Since then, two additional COVID-19 cases have been confirmed at our Snow Lake operations and a number of additional people are in self-isolation. This includes residents of Snow Lake and Flin Flon. As a result, we have temporarily suspended operations at our Stall mill due to not having sufficient team members to operate the plant, while the Lalor mine continues to operate at normal levels and is expected to utilize spare capacity at the Flin Flon mill for ore processing,” reads a Hudbay statement.
No further identifying information of the five confirmed COVID-19-positive people is currently known.
It is also unknown if all the positive Hudbay workers reside full-time in the communities where they work - according to Manitoba provincial data, positive cases of COVID-19 are sorted into the area where a person’s primary residence is, not where they may have contracted COVID-19 or where they may work if they travel for their job. The Flin Flon/Snow Lake/Cranberry Portage/Sherridon health district, as of April 12, has 14 active COVID-19 cases, including seven new cases in the past week and 23 new cases in the past two weeks.
Hudbay has confirmed that production had not been interrupted at Lalor mine or at the company’s Flin Flon operations.
“We are working closely with public health authorities to gather more information about the situation in Snow Lake and Flin Flon and we wish those impacted a speedy recovery. At this stage, public health has not confirmed any workplace transmission at Hudbay,” reads a Hudbay statement.
“While we are encouraged to hear that public health has made significant progress in vaccinating Snow Lake residents, we will continue to follow our strict COVID-19 protocols and procedures, including screening and testing, contact tracing and required isolation periods out of an abundance of caution. Our focus remains on the health and safety of our employees, their families and the communities in which we operate and we will take any additional measures that may be necessary.”
In total, at least 13 workers at Hudbay’s Manitoba operations have tested positive for COVID-19 at different times during the pandemic.
Hudbay reported its first COVID-19 case in its Manitoba operations in October, when two employees in Snow Lake tested positive for the disease. At the time, Hudbay confirmed that both of those cases were reported in Snow Lake residents. In November, at least one worker in Snow Lake - staying at the company’s Outland camp - and five Flin Flon-area workers tested positive for COVID-19.
Reports released by mining watchdog groups have also reported COVID-19 cases at Hudbay’s Constancia mine in Peru - the company has said the results were from rapid tests administered to workers arriving in Peru who had not reached the mine.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, work at Hudbay’s northern Manitoba operations has continued with minimal stoppages - mining is considered to be essential work under Manitoba provincial health orders, allowing the company to operate continuously since March 2020.
.“Our priority remains the health and safety of our employees, their families and the communities in which we operate - and so we are continuing to implement our layered workplace controls,” reads a separate Hudbay statement.
“These include pre-work health screening and temperature-taking at the start of every shift, mandatory mask-wearing in all work areas, taxis and shared vehicles and on-site COVID-19 testing for personnel arriving at our Snow Lake camp.”
