Six people on Tuesday died when a small commuter plane carrying workers to a Rio Tinto mine in Canada's icy far north crashed shortly after taking off.

According to AFP, the Australian mining giant said a plane bound for its Diavik mine and "carrying a number of our people" crashed "resulting in fatalities."

One person survived, according to an aviation insider who wished to remain anonymous since they were not permitted to speak to the media.

According to the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Trenton, Ontario, the plane took off from Fort Smith, 200 miles (320 kilometres) southwest of Yellowknife, at approximately 8:50 a.m. local time. Shortly after takeoff, contact with the aircraft was lost.

Search and rescue technicians parachuted onto the location, and Canadian Rangers on snowmobiles found the craft's wreckage.

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The Jetstream twin turboprop aeroplane, operated by Northwestern Air, reported that the charter flight went down 1.1 kilometres (0.7 miles) from the end of the runway.

As a result, all flights from Fort Smith have been grounded until Wednesday.

Canada's Transportation Safety Board deployed a team to investigate the accident.