Mining and milling operations at Gibraltar restarted Wednesday following a 4 day period of being idle.
Brian Battison is the Vice President of Corporate Affairs for Taseko Mines.
“There weren’t any fires threatening the mine but because of the evacuation orders in many of the communities, particularly in Williams Lake, it made it impossible for employees to make their way to the mine. Now that the risk has been reduced in terms of road access, employees can access the mine south of Quesnel.”
Battison says they will have to adjust the shifts accordingly depending on who is there until the evacuation order is lifted in the Williams Lake area and they are back to full staffing levels.
He says there were a lot of people involved in getting Gibraltar back to operation including local and regional officials, as well as their own employees who established a call centre out of Quesnel.
He adds that none of this would have been possible without the talent, dedication, and energy of the firefighters that are keeping all of us safe.
“One of the best thing we can do as employers, and we’re a big one in the Cariboo, is to get these facilities back and up running so that people can get themselves back to a state of normalcy and to keep the payrolls operating, and to keep our spending in the local areas going,” says Battison.
“That becomes a priority in people’s lives once the shock of the fire impact is behind them and they want to return to their normal lives so that’s part of the drive behind our employees wanting to get the facility back up and running as quickly as possible.”