Raymond Rosenberg with his family in a photo submitted to iNFO News.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED
February 06, 2021 - 2:36 PM
A GoFundMe that was started for the family of a miner who died in a “mud rush” accident near Kamloops has raised almost $100,000 in three days.
Raymond Rosenberg, 35, died following the accident at New Afton Mine near Kamloops, Feb. 2. Two other workers were also injured in the mud rush. The contract driller’s body was recovered Feb. 3.
READ MORE: Body of Kamloops worker killed in New Afton Mine mudslide recovered
An online fundraiser that was set up Feb. 3 by relative Tasha Gruber had an initial goal of raising $25,000 for Rosenberg’s partner Keisha Gronning and their four children.
As of Feb. 6, the GoFundMe has raised $97,977 from 840 donors. It has been shared nearly 4,000 times.
“Our family is overwhelmed and so incredibly grateful for all of the support, kind messages, emails, donations and shares we have all received. We wish we could thank you all individually and personally,” Gruber wrote on the GoFundMe page.
"We were hoping we could just gather the support of enough people to help Keisha navigate through the first couple of weeks as a solo parent to four beautiful babies, while dealing with the immense grief of losing Raymond. We quickly realized how big this was going to be and really started to think about the long term and can see how the expenses are so quickly adding up,” she wrote.
New Afton Mine has a record of maintaining high safety standards, receiving the "large underground mines" award for having a high amount of work hours spent underground and a low amount of injuries over the year, according to the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation.
The open pit and underground mine employs roughly 500 people and has been producing an average of 85,000 ounces of gold and 75-million pounds of copper annually since it opened in 2012, according to the mine’s website.
Surface operations have resumed at the mine as of Feb. 5.
No surface infrastructure was impacted by the underground mud-rush incident, according to New Afton’s press release.
Construction of the thickened and amended tailings facility and stabilization efforts have resumed, and in the following days the remaining surface operations will be ramped up, New Afton announced.
While the underground operations remain suspended, New Afton is working with the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation on a safety plan to resume underground mining operations.
The isolated recovery area where the mud-rush occurred will remain closed until it is safe to resume operations in that area, according to the press release.
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