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VOL. 25 NO. 4
www.terracestandard.com
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Tahltan oppose copper mine A COPPER AND GOLD mine development north of here poses an environmental risk to the aboriginal people who live in the area, says the president of the Tahltan Central Council. Annita McPhee made the comment May 4, the same day the province gave Imperial Metals a Mines Act permit, setting in motion construction at the Red Chris property located up Hwy37 North. At a capital cost of nearly $450 million, the mine is expected to open in mid-2014 and employ 250 people and have an operating life of 28 years.
But McPhee said the province has failed to take into account worries about the safeguarding of surface and ground water. “We have been expressing concerns about the impacts of this proposed mine to our communities, our traditional practices, our environment, our cultural values and our aboriginal title and rights for years” said Annita McPhee, President of the Tahltan Central Council. “This mine has a proposed life-span of 40 years, and poses risks for the Klappan, one of the most sensitive and important areas for the Tahltan people. Not everything has
been done to address our concerns about long-term pollution to our water, and the damage to a landscape that our people have relied on to feed and support themselves since time immemorial. We do not accept that it can proceed without having our concerns properly addressed.” The Red Chris location is south and to the east of the mostly aboriginal village of Iskut which is 500km by road from Terrace. The mine site itself is approximately 20km east of Hwy37 North.
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Miners hope to see an early thumbs up THE PRESIDENT of a mining company which wants to spend more than $800 million on a project north of here is optimistic it will receive early environmental approval. The 180-day provincial environmental assessment clock for Avanti Mining’s Kitsault molybdenum project began ticking down April 30. Projects can only be reviewed once government agencies are satisfied all of the necessary information has been compiled. And so much work went into the application Amanita president Craig Nelson is confident of approval before the 180- day period ends. “That’s my hope. We’re getting a pretty good reaction,” said Nelson in noting the final application incorporated comments and suggestions from agencies who reviewed Amanita’s preparation work. He’s also confident of approval because of the work done to meet conditions of the Nags’ Final Agreement. The mine site is not situated within the core lands of the Nags’ Lisa’s Government but is within the area in which Nags’ have hunting and fishing rights. “We did complete a socio economic impact assessment for the Nags’ and that’s an 800-page document in its own right which now forms part of our application,” said Nelson. “And we’ve looked at the impacts of items such as transportation on First Nations in the area as well.” Amanita has laid out a plan for an open pit operation that would take just over two years to build and have a mine life approaching 17 years. Molybdenum is a sought after commodity used in high strength steel alloys and Amanita has been lining up international customers
for the product. At peak construction, 700 people would be needed with about half that required to work at the mine afterward. Access to the location is by road and the company would maintain a camp at the site with workers on a three weeks in and three weeks out schedule. Nelson said Amanita anticipates a significant percentage of the Kitsault workforce will be from the area with the company only having to bring in some of its top people and those who have the kind of specialized skills not easily found in the region. “We’re thinking in the area of 75 to 80 per cent [employment] range for northwest residents,” he said. “We would also hope they would see the benefits of relocating to places such as Terrace,” added Nelsen of the outside workforce. Avanti purchased the property in 2008 and has spent $70 million moving the project along to the environmental review stage. That’s more than Nelsen thought it would take but said the expenditure is worth it because of the quality of the project. An economic analysis of the project estimates that the mine would have an annual operating cost of $120 million. By road, the mine site is 194 kilometres from Terrace with 100km of that being travelled on the paved Nisga’a Hwy to Nass Camp. Kitsault has been the location of molybdenum mining before with the last mine closing in the early 1980s after only a short operations period. A collapsed molybdenum market was responsible. That mining operation also left a ghost town at Kitsault complete with homes, apartments, stores and recreational facilities.
LAUREN BENN PHOTO
■ First market DUSTIN KESTER enjoys a freshly made pastry that he got from the Farmers Market in Terrace, May 5th, which marked the first day the weekly seasonal event opened in Terrace in 2012.
Get out and ride
Cafe closing
Rugby’s back
Bike to Work week is coming up so dust off your bicycles \COMMUNITY A20
The kiva cafe at the local college is closing this month \NEWS A18
Terrace’s Northmen are warming up for the 2012 season \SPORTS A30