Kameron Coal Management Ltd, owner of the Donkin coal mine, has received 14 warnings, 19 compliance orders and eight administrative penalties or fines since re-starting operations in September 2022. The CBC published a full list of the violations and it is impressive: Orders:  Sept. 21 – Failure to designate qualifiedRead More

Editor’s Note: The subject line of this email was simply “Donkin Mine”   I am a retired psychiatrist who got to treat one of the men for PTSD who had brought out dead from the Westray mine disaster in ‘92. After the explosion the manager of that mine described itRead...

Coal Face “There’s no stone left unturned when it comes to safety with this company”—CBRM District 8 Councilor James Edwards on Kameron Collieries’ decision to reopen the Donkin Mine, CTV Atlantic News, 14 September 2022 The unfortunate reference to stones—the man is, after all, talking about a coal mine proneRead More

I made my thoughts on the potential re-opening of the Donkin Mine pretty clear in last week’s Fast & Curious but I feel the need to return to the topic, thanks to a Cape Breton Post story under the headline: Coal’s last chance: It may be now or never forRead More

Shipping views Before Albert Barbusci (remember him?) entered our lives, I hadn’t thought much about container ships. I remember that one of the few times they impinged on my consciousness was when I saw a short film about one at a film festival — I was foggy on the detailsRead...

We created Morien Resources to be a vehicle of prosperity for Nova Scotians. Its two primary assets, the Donkin Mine and the Black Point Aggregates Project, are located in communities with high unemployment. Many members of these communities have to choose between low paying seasonal jobs or travelling to otherRead More

I began my mining career in 1977 and have been an eye witness to the Donkin saga since the day Pierre Elliot Trudeau announced his National Energy Program (NEP) in the 1980s. The NEP earmarked $2 billion dollars for expansion of the Cape Breton coal industry and Donkin Mine wasRead More

Adding to the general feeling that the world as we know it is coming to an end — and that that’s not necessarily a bad thing — the owners of the Donkin Mine announced on Tuesday they were ending production permanently and putting the mine on “care and maintenance” dueRead More

Steve Drake’s informative piece on March 18th was revealing — an excellent explanation of why the roof-falls are continuing and of what might be the only ‘fix’ possible. It appears that supporting the roof at these depths is best done with the steel arches. It would be quite something ifRead More

Donkin The Donkin Mine saga took an unexpected turn last week with the sudden death of coal baron (and Kameron Collieries owner) Chris Cline in a helicopter crash. Weirdly, this was followed almost immediately by (yet another) rock fall in the mine itself. Fortunately — yet again — nobody wasRead More