Federal mine-safety regulators have cited the owners of the Red Dog mine for 13 violations that agency inspectors found at the mine in August. But agency officials say Teck Alaska has addressed the violations at the zinc mine near Kotzebue.
Red Dog is one of the biggest zinc and lead mines in the world, and it has a history of violating federal health and environmental laws and regulations. But the 13 violations inspectors found at the mine in August involve safety hazards for miners.
A spokesperson for the Canada-based Teck Alaska declined to talk about the violations on tape, but said in an email Tuesday that “At Red Dog Operations, nothing is more important than the health and safety of our people.”
A spokesperson for the federal Department of Labor also declined to talk on tape, but said in an email that Teck Alaska has addressed all 13 of the citations. The spokesperson said the agency hasn’t, however, been told by Teck whether it’ll contest the violations and penalties.
The Teck spokesperson declined to comment on that. But in the email, he wrote, “We addressed these violations immediately and have taken action to prevent any recurrence.”
Officials with the Mine Safety and Health Administration, or MSHA, inspected Red Dog and 13 other mines around the country in August as part of its routine monthly inspections.
The Labor Department spokesperson said MSHA has fined Teck more than $46,000 and proposed penalties for all 13 violations — eight of which were categorized as significant and substantial. MSHA said seven could’ve caused miners to slip, trip or fall, and one was for failure to provide safe access to a work area.
MSHA also ordered the company to correct a trip and fall violation in one work area where rock and mud had accumulated.
Editor’s note: KOTZ’s Desiree Hagen in Kotzebue contributed to this story.
Tim Ellis is a reporter at KUAC in Fairbanks.
