Three miners are trapped underground after a cave-in Tuesday, July 22 at the Red Chris mine.
Premier David Eby confirmed at a First Ministers news conference in Huntsville, Ont., that two of the miners are from BC and one is from Ontario.
The three miners are believed to be uninjured.
"There was an accident," Eby told CBC News. "There are three miners that are currently trapped underground. They are, to the best of our knowledge, uninjured and in a refuge area."
The open-pit copper-gold mine is located 80 kilometres south of Dease Lake (888 km northwest of Prince George). Operated by Newmount Corp., the mine opened in 2015.
A spokesperson for Newmount told CBC there were “two fall-of-ground incidents” Tuesday in an access area to an underground part of the mine.
"At the time of the initial incident, three business partner employees were working more than 500 meters beyond the affected zone and were asked to relocate to a designated refuge station before a subsequent fall of ground blocked the access way," said the Newmont spokesperson said in a prepared statement.
"Following the first event, contact was established with the individuals and confirmation was received that they had safely relocated to one of multiple self-contained refuge bays. The refuge stations are equipped with adequate food, water and ventilation to support an extended stay."
A second cave-in restricted communications with the three trapped miners so the rest of the mine operation was shut down to allow staff to focus on the rescue efforts.
"All appropriate emergency response protocols were activated immediately,” the spokesperson said. “Newmont is actively assessing all methods and technologies available to restore communication and safely bring our team members to surface. Our priority remains on ensuring the safety of the three individuals and of the emergency response teams supporting this effort.”
