Low copper prices have forced the Vancouver-based firm to lay-off more than one-third of the workforce at its Huckleberry mine in northwestern British Columbia.
Eleven of the 28 deaths last year occurred at coal mines, a sector that has seen employment decrease significantly in recent years, especially in Appalachia.
The precious metal is building on gains from earlier in the week, triggered mainly by escalating geo-political tensions in the Middle East and North Korea’s nuclear test.
The last time the weather event was present, it wrought havoc on the mining industry in Australia, with thermal and coking coal mines in Queensland hit by flooding from cyclones and heavy rain.