A worker at the Gahcho Kue diamond mine succumbed to injuries sustained in an incident on Thursday, Sept. 1, according to De Beers.
Details of what caused the fatality were not disclosed.
“The circumstances around what happened are under investigation by the appropriate authorities. All non-essential work at the mine has been suspended. This is an extremely tragic incident and the mine joint venture partners, De Beers Group and Mountain Province Diamonds, extend our deepest condolences to the grieving family and friends of the deceased individual,” reads a news release that De Beers issued on Friday morning. “We want to commend the individual’s co-workers, the mine’s Emergency Response Team, and the onsite medical team who made every effort to save their colleague’s life.”
The employee who perished was described as working for a contractor partner company.
A grief counsellor was brought to the mine site, about 280 km northeast of Yellowknife, on Thursday evening and additional counselling services are available to all employees, De Beers stated.