Agnico Eagle’s Lapa Mine has been recognized as the safest metal mine in Canada for 2018 – honouring its legacy as the company’s smallest mine with the biggest heart.
On April 29th at the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum’s (CIM’s) 2019 Convention in Montreal, Lapa was presented with CIM’s prestigious 2018 John T. Ryan Trophy for experiencing the lowest reportable injury frequency per 200,000 hours worked in Canada in 2017-2018.*
This national award – the first time an Agnico Eagle mine has received this Canada-wide recognition – is the culmination of years of stellar health and safety performance, with Lapa receiving similar provincial and regional recognition through the F.J. O’Connell and John T Ryan regional awards programs. It is especially meaningful given that the Lapa Mine was officially closed in late 2018 and the team has dispersed to other Agnico Eagle mine sites.
Christian Goulet, General Manager at Lapa from 2015-2018 says, “For us, winning a national award like this is like winning the Stanley Cup. It’s the greatest recognition a mine can receive for occupational health and safety management. To even be considered you need more than an excellent injury frequency record. Ideally, you need to have zero incidents at your operation, and I am proud to say that is exactly what we have been able to accomplish at Lapa over the past two years.”
From Christian’s perspective, a few key factors led to this national recognition.
“During a mine closure, you might expect to see more safety issues as people become distracted and worried about their future. But at Lapa, we engaged employees right from the start, outlining our workforce transition plans. I am pleased to say that no employee lost their job as a result of the mine’s closure.”
How was that possible? First, Agnico Eagle had a comprehensive plan to relocate employees to other sites, so they knew they would have job opportunities at our LaRonde or Goldex operations in Quebec or at our new projects in Nunavut. The company also introduced a retention premium and kept technical experts onsite until the end, rather than close out the mine with only contractors.
“We also capitalized on Lapa’s strength for resilience and cooperation, and we linked the Lapa workforce to the nearby team at LaRonde so it could act as the brother or sister site and help ensure that everyone felt supported and continued to benefit from a team-focused environment. We also took the time to celebrate small victories and safety achievements, so that we could build momentum and meaning into our health and safety performance.”
Christian adds, “Personally, this honor means a great deal to me because I lost my father in a work-related accident, so protecting the health and safety of my team has always been a high priority for me.”
According to former Lapa employee Benoît Massicotte, currently LaRonde’s Health and Safety Coordinator, Lapa has set a high standard of performance for any future mine closures at Agnico Eagle.
“It was clear to everyone that employee health and safety remained the top priority at Lapa. Even in a closure context, our mine foremen continued to hold their morning roundtable discussions about safety. And, importantly, we continued to conduct standard occupational health and safety activities – such as inspections, air quality sampling, equipment repairs, and site risk assessments.”
Benoît says the message from Lapa’s management team was clear: to have an exemplary site closure without injuries. “The message we received was not about getting more tons of production out of the ground to keep the mine open. It was about living up to Agnico Eagle’s high expectations for strong safety performance in order to operate as long as possible.”
Benoît and Christian both acknowledge previous leaders, such as Joël Provencher, who did so much to instill Lapa’s culture of safety. “Joël always walked the talk, taking time out of his schedule to conduct field tours and speak directly with workers about health and safety matters,” comments Benoît. Adds Christian, “This is the Lapa legacy and message that inspires us and we take it with us as we move on to other roles within Agnico Eagle.”
For a touching retrospective of our small mine with the big heart we invite you to view this video tribute: Lapa, an Extraordinary Mine
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*Lapa’s safety record was achieved by combining the hours worked during both 2017 and 2018, with the CIM taking into account that the mine was in the midst of a closure and therefore would not achieve the required 200,000 hours worked in one year alone.