TERRACE
1.34
$
S TANDARD
$1.20 PLUS 14¢ HST
VOL. 25 NO. 14
www.terracestandard.com
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Moly miners are optimistic THE PRESIDENT of the company that wants to open a molybdenum mine north of here remains confident it will receive environmental approval. But Craig Nelsen of Avanti Mining, who once hoped approval for its Kitsault mine plan wouldn’t take the full assessment period of 180 days, now says it will take that long. “It’s just the kind of process that’s at work here,” said Nelsen of the review which began at the end of April. “There are simply a lot of steps that have to be done. But I think we are clearly on track.” Avanti’s mine plans indicate there’s enough molybdenum for an operating life approaching 17 years based on a development cost of approximately $800 million. Molybdenum has a number of uses, including as a hardening agent in steel alloys. Nelsen and other Avanti officials have been holding public meetings in the area. The list includes sessions in the Nass Valley, as part of the assessment process. There’s road access to Kitsault north from the Nass Valley and the location is 200 kilometres by road from Terrace. Avanti officials have also been meeting with assessment officials, other government officials and First Nations representatives to go over details of the project. One of Avanti’s more immediate tasks is winnowing down an application of more than 8,000 pages to a core document of up to 80 pages, said Nelsen. “It’s robust, but not without questions,”
said Nelsen of the application. The shorter document will contain what Nelsen calls a series of commitments leading to a project that can then receive environmental certification. Two of those commitments will revolve around water quality at the mine site and the transportation route to be taken by trucks carrying ore concentrate. “We’re committed to having no effect on the water quality,” said Nelsen. “We want our project to be a reflection of the baseline conditions that are there right now.” Protection of water also figures into Avanti’s discussions with the Nisga’a of the Nass Valley to secure broad approval, usually called a social license, for the project. While not within the Nisga’a Nation lands, the Kitsault area is part of the Nisga’a traditional territory. “People are skeptical but at the same time they are pragmatic about the opportunities, mainly for their children,” said Nelsen of responses from the Nisga’a at meetings held in the Nass Valley. Some of the Nisga’a skepticism is rooted in previous molybdenum mining projects in Kitsault, the last one being in the early 1980s. Avanti, in its environmental approval filings now being reviewed, has outlined plans for local training and hiring for a construction workforce and then for an operating workforce.
Cont’d Page A16
Polluted sites probed SAMANTHA GARVEY PHOTO
■ Paving party ALEX JULIEN doesn’t let Tuesday’s hot sun affect his work while paving the corner of Sparks St. and Lakelse Ave., July 10. The paving is part of the city’s summer long road improvement program.
THE PROVINCE is spending $260,000 to help clean up two local properties affected by industrial or commercial use. The grants come from a provincial program aimed at ridding properties of pollutants so they can become usable again. Privately-owned NSD Development Corporation is getting $165,042.43 to continue determining what’s in the ground on property west of Kenney and bounded by Keith to the south and CN’s rail tracks to the north. It once acted as the log yard for a sawmill, since dismantled, that was east of Kenney toward the Sande Overpass, but had other industrial uses as well. The land has now been renamed the
North Coast Industrial Park and NSD Developments did obtain a development permit from the city for a portion of the property it had cleared near a rail spur this spring. The spur is located near Blakeburn Ave. But initial development plans were halted when a site investigation determined that burning of waste wood there over the years was a cause for concern. “They had a diesel-powered sawmill and fuel and tanks but no record of what they did with that stuff,” said city planner David Block of material and equipment once at the location.
Cont’d Page A16
Star rising
CAO settled
Games begin
Local opera singer enjoys busy career and opportunities open to her \COMMUNITY A17
A familiar face at city hall is hired to replace Don Ramsay as chief admin \NEWS A10
Over 50 Terrace youth are taking on the province at the BC Summer Games \SPORTS A26