Mud rush kills one, injures two at New Afton mine

New Afton
New Afton mine. Image from New Gold.

New Gold (NYSE: NGD) announced Tuesday that an overnight mud rush at the New Afton gold-copper mine in Kamloops, British Columbia involved three workers.

Two New Gold employees received non-life threatening injuries and received medical care while one contract driller is presumed to be deceased, the company said.

The names of the individuals will not be released until next of kin have been notified. New Gold said emergency management system has been activated and the RCMP are on site.

All activities have been suspended while the company and authorities investigate the incident.

With an average production rate of about 16,000 tonnes per day, New Afton is touted as the largest daily tonnage underground hard rock mine in Canada.