An earthquake in southeastern Saskatchewan led to a power outage that trapped around 40 miners underground at a potash mine near Rocanville, on the morning of Sept. 5.

The quake occurred at about 4:40 a.m., had a depth of around one kilometre and measured 3.8 on the Richter scale, according to information from Earthquakes Canada. It was centred near Yorkton and was also felt in Esterhazy, Tantallon and Gerald.

The effects of the quake knocked out the power at a regional substation near the PotashCorp Rocanville mine, shutting down power to a large part of the area, according to Randy Burton, PotashCorp’s director of public relations and communications.

“Under normal circumstances, our emergency generator would kick in,” said Burton, referring to the Rocanville mine’s backup power. “We had a switch problem. An automatic transfer switch didn’t work as expected, and it shut the generator down.”

As a result, a hoist at one of the mine’s shafts could not run, meaning that two mining crews had no way to return to the surface. The miners stayed in an underground refuge station until around 11 a.m., when the power returned.

“Potash mines are big shafts, and they cut out refuge stations where there’s air supply, water and facilities,” explained Burton. “In the event of a serious emergency, miners go to refuge stations. So they did that in this case and essentially just had to wait for a few hours until power was restored and the hoist was operational again.”

All of the workers emerged safely from the mine that morning. “There was never any question about safety,” added Burton. “The tremor did not cause any damage to the mine.”

This was not the first time such an event had occurred at this mine. In Sept. 2012, an earthquake sparked a fire and trapped workers there underground for about 24 hours. There have been 12 earthquakes in the region measuring at three or higher on the Richter scale over the past 35 years, according to information from Natural Resources Canada.

But Burton said that incidents such as the Sept. 5 power outage are relatively rare at PotashCorp’s mines.

“I do believe there have been previous tremors. I’m aware of at least a couple I’ve seen reported in the news over the past three or four years,” he said.

“Safety’s number one at all these sites,” Burton added. “The procedures, protocols are built in that if anything’s not working the way it’s supposed to, everybody knows where to go and what to do.”

PotashCorp is the world’s biggest fertilizer company by capacity and produces potash, nitrogen and phosphate, according to the company’s website. Its Rocanville mine provides standard and granular potash for use in fertilizer and agricultural products across North America.

Rocanville is located around 230 kilometres east of Regina.

A worker was mauled by a lone timber wolf at the Cigar Lake uranium mine in northern Saskatchewan, in the early morning hours of Aug. 29.

The man, a 26-year-old contract employee with Cameco Corporation, was outside taking a break when the animal attacked at about 12:05 a.m., without any provocation, said Gord Struthers, Cameco’s director of external communications.

“He was on a path between the main camp and the contractors’ residential camp, and he was attacked,” said Struthers. “One of the security people at the site observed it, and she acted very quickly to get the wolf away from him.”

The security staffer immediately notified the site’s emergency-response team, who tended to the victim’s injuries, Struthers added. The worker was airlifted to a hospital in Saskatoon within a few hours of the incident.

Conservation officers with the province’s Ministry of Environment were informed of the attack later that morning, according to Kevin Harrison, a conservation officer for the city of Prince Albert.

“They were up at the mine site, seeing the location of the attack, and conducted an investigation up there, took some statements, talked to some people,” said Harrison. “They’ve been dealing with the mine staff there ever since.”

The conservation officers also destroyed three animals in the vicinity of the mine and held a town-hall meeting with the site’s employees to reinforce messages about safety around wildlife.

“I think they were very happy to get the additional information and have it reaffirmed for them,” Struthers said about the workers, noting that the company has wildlife-management programs at each of its remote operations to make workers aware of the risks and train them on how to respond to attacks. “People are familiar with animal hazards at our mine sites.

“There are a lot of things that are done to keep people safe and healthy at these sites with respect to wildlife,” he said. “We also manage our waste in particular ways to make sure that it minimizes the attraction of animals.”

The attack victim appeared to be recovering in good spirits, Struthers added. “He’s obviously had a pretty frightful experience,” he said, “but he underwent surgery, and that went well.”

Animal attacks are very uncommon in Saskatchewan, noted Harrison. “Typically, wolves like to keep away from humans. They shy away and keep their distance,” he said. But the province does have two previous confirmed cases of wolf attacks, one involving another Cameco employee.

On New Year’s Eve of 2004, a wolf lunged at Fred Desjarlais while he was on his way home from the Cameco uranium mine in Key Lake. Desjarlais survived the attack, but required stitches and rabies shots. In Nov. 2005, Kenton Carnegie was killed by a group of wolves while out for a walk near Points North Landing, a mining supply camp where the geology student had been working in a co-op program through the University of Waterloo.

“If you’re working in rough country, you have to always be cautious and be aware of your surroundings,” said Harrison. He advised any worker approached by a wolf that appears threatening or acts strangely to stay calm and not to run away. “Make yourself as big as possible, make yourself intimidating-looking and slowly back away if you can,” he added.

“If it’s attacking you, fight with all you’ve got.”

The Cigar Lake Mine is located in the Athabasca Basin, about 660 kilometres north of Saskatoon.

CRESTON, B.C. – Firefighters in southeastern British Columbia are currently at risk, after vandals destroyed radio communication equipment belonging to the B.C. Wildfire Service sometime between July 29 and Aug. 2. A bulletin from the Service stated on Aug. 4 that the gear, located at the Southeast Fire Centre on Thompson Mountain near Creston, was damaged “beyond repair” and that it would cost somewhere between $80,000 and $100,000 to replace the equipment and install it in a safer area. “At this time of the year, when wildfire behaviour can be both aggressive and unpredictable, it’s crucial for B.C. Wildfire Service personnel to be able to communicate with each other quickly and effectively,” the bulletin noted. “Radio repeaters and related equipment are vital for ensuring the safety of firefighting crews and for protecting the public and infrastructure from harm.” The Service has asked the public to leave its radio equipment alone and to report any information about this act of vandalism to local RCMP officers or Crime Stoppers.