Red Dog Mine employee dies in production drill incident, mine operators say

A terraced pit mine with a dust explosion in the middle
Red Dog Mine in 2010. (Alaska Public Media)

An employee at the Red Dog Mine died during an incident at a production drill, mine operators say.

In a release Sunday, officials with Teck Alaska, the operators of the mine, said a 47-year-old employee died on Saturday. Teck said no other employees or contractors were injured and “there is no ongoing safety or environmental risk.”

A spokesman for Teck said the federal Mining Safety and Health Administration is investigating the incident, and the only information they could provide was that the employee was male.

A major employer in the Northwest Arctic Borough, Red Dog Mine is the largest zinc mine in the world, located about 90 miles north of Kotzebue.

a portrait of a man outside

Wesley Early covers Anchorage life and city politics for Alaska Public Media. Reach him at wearly@alaskapublic.org and follow him on X at @wesley_early. Read more about Wesley here.

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