Natural air is flowing to the area where three workers are trapped in a northern British Columbia mine, the operator's safety chief said, adding that there appears to be a stable rescue route to them behind the massive rockfall that cut them off.
Bernard Wessels, global safety head for Newmont Corp., would not say how long he expected their rescue to take, but "from a timing perspective we are confident."
Wessels said the company, based in Denver, Colorado, "will not rest until we bring them home safely."
"There is natural flow of air through, which is really a positive sign, where the workers are located," Wessels told a virtual press briefing, speaking on Thursday afternoon from the remote Red Chris mine site about 500 kilometres northwest of Terrace, B.C.
The three have been trapped underground since Tuesday morning, after they were trapped by two rockfalls.Â
Newmont said earlier that a remote-controlled scoop had already begun removing the debris. The company has not said how deep underground the workers are, but the collapses occurred about 200 metres into the "decline" of the mine.
Wessels said the contractors for Hy-Tech Drilling confirmed by radio that they had made their way to a steel refuge chamber after the first fall at 7:47 a.m., before the second collapse at 10:30 a.m. severed communications.
Wessels said drones had flown over the debris from the second collapse, measuring 20 to 30 metres long by seven to eight metres high, and confirmed that "the rest of the area is safe."
"We also determined that the route to the refuge station behind the fall of ground is stable because we could actually send the drones over it. We could establish that, that that ground is stable," he said.
The second collapse had occurred about 700 metres from the refuge area, which was stocked with "ample" food and water, Wessels said.
The MineArc refuge chamber is designed to support 16 people and additional chambers are accessible nearby should the workers need them, the company said.
Hy-Tech Drilling, based in Smithers, B.C., said in a statement that it is working closely with Newmont to support the rescue.
Newmont CEO Tom Palmer said on an earnings call Thursday that the company’s focus is on restoring communications to the refuge chamber, then safely re-establishing access and bringing the three back to the surface.
Palmer said rescuers were devising "various plans" to reach the workers, which could include using a vent shaft.
"We will conduct a thorough and independent investigation into the factors that led to this event," Palmer said, adding that findings would be shared across the industry.
Dwayne Tannant, a professor of geotechnical engineering at the University of B.C.'s Okanagan campus, said the debris is a "substantial volume of rock" that must be shifted in order to rescue the workers.Â
"Oftentimes, you might see something an order of magnitude or two orders of magnitude smaller, and that would still be a serious incident," he said.
Tannant said the nature of the debris will influence the course of the rescue effort.
"If you have large blocks of rock mixed into that pile of debris, those are hard to remove. You can't scoop them up," he said in an interview.
"I'm hoping that the debris that is lying in the tunnel is of a manageable size in terms of the individual blocks (so) it can be easily scooped up and removed."
B.C. Premier David Eby previously identified the workers as being from B.C. and Ontario, but Hy-Tech spokeswoman Julie Masse said in an interview Thursday that the three are from Ontario, Manitoba and B.C.
Masse said the workers are diamond drillers, referring to the type of bit used to drill into the ground.
She said the company is not releasing any personal information about the workers out of respect for their families.
Tannant said he has been inside many refuge stations that would be similar to the one where the trapped workers are sheltering.
He said the refuge areas, which are mandatory for B.C. mines, are typically built at the end of a smaller tunnel and sealed with a steel door.
They have lighting, with some places to sit and perhaps some cots for sleeping, along with food and water, he said.
Tannant said the mining company and rescue teams will be reluctant to have the trapped workers walk beneath unsupported rock, so the effort will likely involve shoring up the passageway once enough debris has been cleared.
"They probably have a drill that could drill holes and install this rock support," he said.
"They may even need to spray concrete, coat the wall with concrete to help stabilize and reinforce it. So, the geotechnical assessment will be deciding what is the appropriate … ground support or rock support to stabilize the area."
Production at the gold and copper mine has been paused while the rescue effort continues.
The mine is mostly open pit, but Newmont said in an earlier statement that development of underground block-cave mining began in 2019, four years after the mine's first production date.
The workers were more than 500 metres past the affected zone when the first rocks fell, and they were asked to relocate to the refuge before the second fall.Â
Wessels said that rather than setting a timeline for the rescue, it was more important to conduct it safely, with technical specialists being sent from Denver and Vancouver.
"Our absolute priority is the safety and well-being of these three individuals, but also the safety of the emergency response teams supporting this effort," he said.
This report by °µÍø½ûÇø was first published July 24. 2025.
