A COVID-19 outbreak has occurred at a White River-area gold mine

WHITE RIVER, Ont. — The operator of a gold mine near White River is reporting its first COVID-19 outbreak.

Harte Gold Corp. announced Tuesday that it's currently managing three cases of the virus among employees at the Sugar Zone mine, 30 kilometres north of White River and 70 kilometres east of Hemlo.

Two of the workers are showing no symptoms.

The workplace transmission occurred in the mill facilities, and resulted in the temporary suspension of mill operations.

Mining operations were not impacted, and the mill was expected to resume production Wednesday.

The company said that In partnership with Algoma Public Health, contact tracing was completed to determine the potential for additional exposures.

Workers potentially affected are now self-isolating.

Harte Gold has an active COVID-19 antigen testing program at the site, and continues to offer voluntary site vaccinations to its employees.

The Sugar Zone mine began commercial production in 2019.