'Trevali managers found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in Burkina Faso', 14 September 2022

A court in Burkina Faso has found two managers of Canada’s Trevali Mining guilty of involuntary manslaughter after a flash flood trapped and killed eight miners in April at the company’s Perkoa zinc operation in the West African country.

The executives, arrested in late August, received different sentences... Hein Frey, the mine’s general manager, was given a suspended sentence of 24 months in prison and a $3,000 fine. Daryl Chrystensen, director of a subcontracting company, Byrnecut Burkina, was found guilty of complicity in manslaughter and given a 12 month suspended sentence, plus a $1,500-fine.

A suspended sentence means the convicted person does not have to serve it immediately. The court orders it to be deferred for a certain period during which the defendant is on probation. If the person does not break the law during that time and fulfills the particular conditions of the probation, the sentence is usually considered fulfilled...

Earlier this month, Trevali announced it was delisting from the Toronto Stock Exchange, effective Monday October 3 after close. The decision came after the company filed an application for creditor protection under Canada’s Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA). CCAA allows companies to restructure and carry on their business while avoiding the “social and economic consequences of bankruptcy.”...