Mine Safety Awards

The Mine Safety Awards were established in 1961 by the province to recognize the safety record of mines in this province. Each year, these awards honour mining operations for their safety accomplishments in the previous calendar year.

The Mine Safety Awards are held each year to honour the safest mining operations in B.C. Each year's winners gather the following spring to be presented their awards.

The following awards were handed out on May 15th, 2023 at the 61st Annual Mine Safety Awards in Victoria.

Open Pit Mine and Quarry Awards

Certificate of Achievement

Certificates of Achievement were presented to the following operations, all of which had a minimum of 15,000 worker hours and an injury-frequency rate of zero:

• CertainTeed Canada Inc. – Windermere Mining Operation
• Lafarge Canada Inc. – Cannon Quarry
• Lafarge Canada Inc. – Abbotsford Gravel Sales Ltd.
• Mainland Construction Materials – Jamieson Quarry
• Mainland Construction Materials – McLean Quarry
• Mainland Construction Materials – Bradner Pit
• Peace River Coal Inc. – Trend-Roman Mine

Stewart/O'Brian Safety Award

This award was presented to the following operations, all of which logged between 35,000 and 200,000 worker hours and had the lowest injury-frequency rate:

• 532470 BC Ltd. – Summit Crushing
• Lafarge Canada Inc. – Hub City Paving
• Lafarge Canada Inc. – Central Aggregates
• Mainland Construction Materials – Cox Station
• Sandhill Materials Inc. – Sandhill Materials
• Westridge Quarries Ltd. – Larkin Quarry

Edward Prior Award

This award is presented to operations that logged between 200,000 and 1,000,000 worker hours and had the lowest injury-frequency rate:

• Skeena Resources – Eskay Creek

John Ash Award

This award is presented to operations that logged a minimum of 1,000,000 worker hours and had the lowest injury-frequency rate:

• Newcrest Mining Ltd. – Silvertip Mine 

Underground Mine Awards

Small Underground Mines Award

• Coeur Silvertip Holdings Ltd. - Silvertip Mine 

Large Underground Mines Award

This award is presented to operations with more than 240,000 worker hours (one-third of which were underground) and that had the lowest injury-frequency rate during the calendar year:

• New Gold Inc. – New Afton Mine

Chief Inspector of Mines Award

Innovation in Mine Health and Safety

• Jordan Whynot, Inspector of Mines - Health and Safety Specialist

Mine Safety Technology Award

The Mine Safety Technology Award is a leading indicator award created to recognize the development of controls to prevent workplace incidents and to acknowledge a mine’s innovation, using technology to protect the health and safety of its employees. We want to hear how you identified the problem and what you did to fix it, either using brand new technology or through the innovation of existing technology. This is a chance to showcase how your company took innovative steps to make BC’s mining sector safer.

• Newcrest Mining Ltd. – Red Chris