Terrane Metals hold open house
November 26, 2008 | By Rick Playfair, Caledonia Courier
Terrane Metals held an open house in Fort St. James recently. They were in town to explain how the Environmental Review process works and the open house gave the public a chance to give their input.
Chris Parks from the BC Environmental Assessment Office explained the purpose and the process of the Environmental Assessment.
“All major projects in B.C. are subject to the BC Environmental Assessment Act,” Parks said. “It addresses a project’s potential environmental, health, social, heritage, and economic effects. It identifies measures that should be taken to avoid or minimize the adverse effects of the mine. The role of the Environmental Assessment Office is to direct and coordinate the assessment process, and ensure that the potential effects of the mine are adequately reviewed in an open, transparent, and objective manner.”
Terrane has to commission studies and gather information that is required to assess the potential effects of the mine. Terrane consults the First Nations that are involved, and follows the direction and guidance from the EAO during the process. They have to show how the project will be built and closed.
“The Environmental Assessment Office chairs a working group that comprises of the First Nations, the provincial government, the federal government, and the local government,’ Parks said. “The working group provides technical reviews and advice.”
The public has the opportunity to review the document and comment on it. The review is located in the local library or on the Environmental Assessment Office website.
Amanda Chisholm spoke on the Federal Environmental Assessment. The federal decision makers consider the environmental effects of the proposed project before taking actions that would allow the project to move forward.
Andrew Thrift and Gillian Roy of Terrane Metals spoke on the proposed Mt. Milligan Mine Project.
Roy spoke about the importance of community engagement, and that sustainability was a big priority to Terrane.
“Terrane wants to operate in an environmentally sustainable manner,” Roy said. “We want to hire locally as much as possible.
“The Community Sustainability Committee is a way (for Terrane) to connect to the community and to prevent (a negative) impact and to move forward and see how we can contribute to your community.”
Prince George, Mackenzie, Fort McLeod and Fort St. James will all be affected by the mine, she said. The upshot is that the impact is positive economically to all communities.
“There will be 700 jobs at the peak of construction if everything goes as planned next summer,” she said. “It will not be 700 jobs to start with, but at the peak of construction. After construction and operation, we are looking at approximately 400 full time jobs.”
The area where the mine is proposed has been logged. The entire area has been heavily impacted by the mountain pine beetle.
Andrew Thrift, manager of environment and permitting, said that they have a good idea what is in the ground. It will be a gold and copper mine.
“More than 330 million tons is what we will mine in the 15-year mine life,” he said. “That is a conservative assumption. There are 690 million tons available if conditions are right to expand from the 15-year mine life. Mines like Endako that were winding down (have found ways to continue running for a longer time).”
“All potentially acid-generating and metal leaching rock is to be stored under water in the tailing pond or in the open pit,” he said. “There are no waste rock dumps at the end of the operation. Neutralization potential relative to the amount of acid potential is quite high.”
The footprint of the mine project has been reduced by 29 percent compared to the 1993 project that was approved to go ahead.
“The closure plan incorporates all levels of the mine and tailings design,” he said. “We take closure very seriously. Very early in the process we think about how to close it.”
The mine will not be a camp operation, as the company wants people to commute from town. There will be a service provided by the company to that end.
“At the end of the mine life, the water that has been run through the mill will go into the pit,” he said. “The pit takes about 20 years to fill up. As it fills up in those 20 years the water quality is monitored. It gives us lots of time to see if we need any kind of water treatment. After 20 years the pit is filled up and starts draining back into Meadows Creek. It goes through a wetland so that any sediments that could be in there (can settle and be leached out). The pit doesn’t have a lot of it and it has such a long time to settle, and we put plants in wetlands that will capture metals and you will have clean water coming out of that.”
The creek will feed in to the Rainbow Creek. The mine pit fills with water and will reach the maximum fill height in approximately 20 years. The water quality is monitored and reported and additional treatment will be installed if needed.
“The entire tailings dam area will be revegetated to acceptable local species,” he said. “The mine infrastructure such as roads, the power line, corridors, and buildings will be reclaimed. Terrane will maintain the reclamation bonding and report on reclamation progress for many years. It will cost about $917 million to do the whole mine project from start to finish.”
The construction jobs are expected to peak in late 2010 through 2011. Construction workers will be housed in a temporary construction camp that will be disassembled after construction is completed.
“Terrane hopes to transition many temporary construction workers to permanent mine employees,” Gillian Roy said. “We are looking to take many workers from the forestry sector and transfer them into the mining sector as well.”
Nak’azdli councilor, Anne Marie Sam, attended the open house in Prince George. She was not convinced that the project would not impact the traditional hunting and fishing grounds her family has accessed for generations. Sam’s family has a keyoh in the mining area.
“For us we have a big concern about the Rainbow Creek watershed. (The mine is) only one kilometer from Rainbow Creek,” she said. “There are still people who rely on this land. No tailings pond out there is 100 per cent contained. You can’t say it won’t affect Rainbow Creek.”
Sam also questioned what guarantee her people have that Terrane won’t apply for a permit to discharge water from the mine.
“Gibraltar (mine) near Quesnel said they weren’t going to discharge,” she said. “But they went and got a permit and now they are.”
Sam said as a keyoh holder in the area, they should have comparable decision-making authority over the project as the provincial and federal government.
“We’ve put proposals to both B.C. and Canada that Nak’azdli want to be involved, not as some minister in Victoria who’s never been up here.”
- with files from Arthur Williams, Prince George Free Press
