Four of six charges against Aurora Geosciences Ltd. of Whitehorse have been set aside by the Yukon Workers' Compensation Health and Safety Board.

Aurora was charged this past spring, a year after one of the company's field workers was attacked and killed by a sow grizzly bear defending her two cubs and den site about 30 kilometres east of Ross River.

Jean-Francois PagÈ, 28, was out staking claims on April 28, 2006. It's believed he unknowingly came too close the den, and was suddenly attacked.

The charges drew harsh criticism of the compensation board.

Industry representatives defended the company as a responsible firm that did everything necessary to prepare its employees for work in the field, including bear awareness training, and equipping its employees with bear deterrents.

The industry maintained the charges should be a concern to all businesses whose employees work in the wilderness, from tourist operators to big game outfitters.

'We are pleased to see that four of the six charges have been dropped,' Mike Power, a principal with Aurora Geosciences, said in an interview this morning.

'It's too bad they did not drop the rest of them while they were at it. We are confident that in open court it will become clear that the company acted reasonably, and responsibly throughout.

'We are innocent of these charges.'

Officials with the compensation board, however, have maintained the charges are warranted.

Mark Hill, a spokesman for the compensation board, said this morning a stay of proceedings was entered on the four charges to eliminate redundancy. It was felt the two remaining charges are sufficient to cover the board's case, he said.

The four charges were set aside at a pretrial conference last week, Hill explained.

A new trial date of Jan. 24, 2008 has been set.

Charges which have been stayed can be reactivated within a year, though it is extremely rare for the Crown to do so.

The two remaining charges accuse Aurora Geosciences of:

failing to ensure work procedures were adopted and used that will prevent or reduce the risk of occupational illness and injury;

failing to ensure workers were given the necessary instruction and training and were adequately supervised, taking into account the nature of the work.

The charges which were dropped accused the company of:

failing to ensure equipment and processes under the employer's control were safe and without risks to health;

failing to ensure workers were made aware of hazards in work;

failing to ensure a worker uses or wears equipment, protective devices, required under the act or by the nature of the work; and

the supervisor failed to advise workers of the existence of any potential or actual dangers to their health and safety of which they were aware.

Aurora Geosciences entered not guilty pleas to all charges on July 17.