Pelly Construction Ltd. has laid off the vast majority of its crew working at the Minto Mine.

Pelly vice-president Jennifer Byram said this morning that once students and other summer seasonal staff returned to university and such, there were approximately 58 company employees continuing the open pit mining operation at Minto.

They were all notified Sept. 22 of the impending layoff.

The first layoffs occurred last Thursday and the rest over the past weekend, she explained in an interview.

“I personally called them and told them,” she said. “It’s really tough. It’s hard to lay off people.”

Both Byram and Ron Light, Minto Mine’s general manager, said there is, however, a chance of Pelly returning as early as January to strip and mine the next open pit target, pending a decision by Capstone Mining, the owner.

Byram said while the layoffs are hard, it wasn’t as though it was a surprise, as Light has been holding regular town hall meetings to keep staff up to date.

“They were very upfront with what was going on,” she said. She said the Pelly crew dedicated to the mine is now down to six.

Pelly is a Whitehorse heavy equipment construction company subcontracted by Capstone for the open pit mining as well as on-site reclamation work and other work requiring heavy equipment.

It’s expected milling of stockpiled ore at the Minto Mine will continue well into next year. Underground mining is continuing.

Light explained earlier this year that they were expecting to finish up the open pit operation in August, though in August he said it was taking longer and would probably take until early October.

But the general manager said also in August there was also the possibility Capstone would decide to move on to the next open pit target.

Light said this morning that is still the case, and a decision is expected sometime between now and the end of the year.

“If we get approval for further open pit mining, we would start that possibly as early as January,” he said.

Light said the company has given the green light to continue the underground operation.

The layoff of the Pelly crew is not likely to have much impact on the support staff such as the 26 employed by Sudexo, the catering contractor, he said.

Byram said while the layoffs were tough, in the 29 years Pelly Construction has existed, it has worked at the Minto Mine site off and on for 20 of those years, and everyday for the last 10 years.

“So if you think of it in those terms, we’ve had a pretty good run at the Minto Mine ... and hopefully we’ll go back in January,” she said.

Byram said Pelly doesn’t have any work right now for the employees laid off.

For those who ask, she’s been recommending them to companies outside the territory that she knows are looking to hire.

The Minto Mine employs approximately 155 people directly, in addition to the Sudexo crew and the 28 employed by Dumas, the underground mining contractor.