Well we don't really know. The cage went down and came up empty. The mine is not saying specifically, we suppose as it may be litigated. They did pump it out, so water inflow cannot have been that great, so it does point to a cage error in a way. On the other hand they did seem to indicate that there was an inrush of water. they also said the men would have had to dive down 50 metres to get out, so there is some kind of dead end heading suggested as well. It is confusing without the details being described. After the cage hit water its rate of descent would be very slow, perhaps as slow as 5 feet per second, but it would be very hard to get out. The doors needs to swing out and will not. If there is a half door, there is still very little wiggle room between the cage and the face of the shaft. There is little room forward in a descending cage, and the escape thru the roof is difficult too. At any rate the miners did not ascend, so if that happened, they got out, but did not survive.
Here is what they say:
"They lost contact once they reached the bottom levels of the shaft. When workers at the surface realized something was wrong, they brought the cage back up and found it drenched, with the emergency ceiling latch open.
Metanor superintendent of human resources, Pierre Bernaquez, says families of the victims will be provided help with funeral arrangements.Metanor superintendent of human resources, Pierre Bernaquez, says families of the victims will be provided help with funeral arrangements. (CBC)
The workers were wearing heavy overalls and helmets and were carrying tools and flashlight batteries when they went down.
All three men were found between Level 11 and Level 12 of the recently reactivated mine.
An alarm to warn miners about water did not go off the night Guay, Bollini and Goulet were in the shaft, and it seemed pumps intended to keep the mine dry had also failed.
Radio-Canada's Francis Labbé reported from the mine site.
Quebec's workplace health and safety board (CSST) inspected the mine in September because the underground facility was scheduled to be reopened after being idle for some time, said spokesman Pierre Turgeon.
He said the CSST has launched an investigation into Friday's incident in co-operation with Quebec provincial police.
"Our inspectors will go down the mine to check what kind of equipments are there, what kind of security equipments were there — if not why … what went wrong?" Turgeon said."
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Belmoral had many rumours and no resolution. One was that the surveying was not done. There was no engineer on staff which is contrary to Ontario regulations but perhaps not Quebec. Another was that there was a deeply incised fault that was not known. Another was that there was highgrading in that stope and that the miners in question were not scheduled to be there, and had taken lifts beyond plan. I think the rumours could be started to allay blame of bad engineering. At any rate I remember being in Quebec and having to drill all our ramps from the surface before driving them in order to determine the solidity of the overburden pillars above openings. People were being cautious at that time. (1980 - Croinor Pershing near Senneterre)
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