Panel Rejects BC Mine Project Worth $8 Billion
Northgate's Kemess North mine would turn lake into toxic dump.
Amazay Lake faced destruction.
A mining plan to transform a remote British Columbia lake into a toxic waste dump has been rejected by a government review panel, but its exhaustive report acknowledges the possibility that federal and provincial ministers of environment might approve the controversial project anyway.
The unprecedented environmental assessment crushes Northgate Mineral Corporation's proposal to dig a second pit to the north of its existing Kemess Mine, located more than 400 kilometres northwest of Prince George. The Kemess North project would have unearthed $8 billion worth of gold and copper, while leaving local First Nations communities with a lake that would have remained polluted for centuries.
"The Tse Keh Nay congratulates the panel members on their brave recommendation, and calls upon both governments to follow the panel's lead and protect Amazay Lake," said Grand Chief Gordon Pierre, who represents a coalition of First Nations opposed to the tailings disposal plan.
"This is not just about protecting this lake for First Nations people; this is about protecting all lakes for all Canadians," Pierre added. "There are 20 lakes in Canada facing similar mining proposals. We are happy that a precedent has been set in Tse Keh Nay territory: Killing lakes is unacceptable."
Designating lakes as waste dumps
Northgate had planned to blast a second open-pit mine into the Omineca Mountains, near the eastern rim of the Spatsizi Plateau. A fleet of giant trucks would have hauled million of tons of earth out of the spiral hole. After the gold and copper concentrate was removed, an estimated 414 million tons of waste rock and tailings sand would be dumped somewhere.
Seizing on a federal mining regulation crafted in 2002, Northgate proposed to dispose of its waste rock beneath the waters of nearby Amazay Lake (also known as Duncan Lake). The relatively new mining provision allows the federal cabinet to issue an Order in Council that reclassifies any fish-bearing water as a "Tailings Impoundment Area," and in so doing exempts it from most environmental regulations.
Four Canadian lakes were reclassified this way in 2006; two in Nunavut and two in Newfoundland. There are as many as 20 fish-bearing waters currently awaiting such amendment nationwide.
At least four of those are in British Columbia: Taseko Mines has proposed reclassifying Fish Lake as an impoundment area for its Prosperity project, Western Keltic Mines has proposed taking part of the Andrea Creek watershed for its Kutcho project, Adanac Molybdenum has proposed reclassifying part of the Ruby Creek watershed for the Ruby project, and Imperial Metals has received governmental approval to reclassify Quarry Creek for its Red Chris project, but that decision is being challenged in federal court.
All were awaiting the results of the Kemess North environmental review; all were likely surprised by the scope of Monday's decision.
'Obligations may continue for several thousand years'
The Kemess North review was a joint assessment involving both the federal and provincial governments under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act.
"The economic and social benefits provided by the Project, on balance, are outweighed by the risks of significant adverse environmental, social and cultural effects, some of which may not emerge until many years after mining operations cease," stated the panel's 300-page final report, release online on the afternoon of September 17.
"The Panel notes that the Project's benefits accrue for only a relatively short period (two years of construction and 11 years of mining production)," continued the report. "Key adverse effects include the loss of a natural lake with important spiritual values for Aboriginal people, and the creation of a long-term legacy of environmental management obligations at the minesite to protect downstream water quality and public safety. These obligations may continue for several thousand years...."
The joint report also raised concerns about inequity: "The Panel also notes that it may be difficult for Aboriginal people to increase their share of Project benefits, although as the region's primary residents and users, they would experience first-hand any impacts on traditionally-used resources."
At the same time, the panel recognized that conservative governments in Ottawa and Victoria could choose to ignore its 300-pages of findings. The report offers 33 detailed recommendations intended to mitigate adverse effects in the event the Harper and Campbell governments decide to approve the Kemess North Mine.
Sister mine among most profitable
"Over the next several days, Northgate will be reviewing the details of the report and speaking with the federal and provincial authorities," stated a release issued within hours of the panel report.
Kemess South, the publicly traded company's only active mine, is scheduled to wind down beginning in 2009.
"Ministers could disagree with the Panel's advice and approve the Project," stressed the Northgate release, which also noted that the panel shared its conclusion "that Duncan (Amazay) Lake is the only waste disposal alternative which is environmentally effective, and technically and economically feasible."
Northgate acquired the Kemess North site in 2000, along with the Kemess Mine. After several years of drilling, Northgate concluded that locked within 414 million tons of ore, Kemess North contains a combined "proven and probable" reserve of 4.1 million ounces of gold, and 1.46 billion pounds of copper. At current market prices, that's roughly $3 billion worth or gold and $5 billion of copper. Northgate projected its capital costs at $190 million.
Kemess South produced 310,296 ounces of gold and 81.2 million pounds of copper in 2006, earning $107 million on cash flow of only $147 million. Northgate's web site describes Kemess as "one of the most efficient open pit mines in the world" and "one of the lowest cash costs in the industry."
'Ok to kill off our people'
"Most of our people still do trapping, hunting and fishing. They eat animals, who eat other animals, who drink that water," said Chief Dolly Abraham of the Takla Lake First Nation, one of several bands opposed to the plan. "If government were to OK this mine, they'd be giving the OK to kill off our people."
The Kemess North project was strongly opposed by the B.C. Assembly of First Nations, the First Nations Summit, the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs and the Gitxsan House of Nii Kyap, in addition to the Tse Keh Nay nations. The latter include the Kwadacha First Nation (at the confluence of the Finlay and Fox rivers), the Tsay Keh Dene (at the north end of Williston Lake) and the Takla Lake First Nation.
For each of the past four years, these groups have been convening spiritual ceremonies at Amazay Lake to express their opposition to the plan. More than 100 people attended last August's gathering.
"We are not against development in our Territories," added Grand Chief Gordon Pierre of the Tsay Keh Dene. "We are against development such as Northgate's proposal to kill a lake and the source of our communities' drinking water."
All groups called on both governments to honor the panel's recommendation and not proceed with the project. Some warned that if the mine is approved, blockades and legal action would result.
"They give out permits as if the land was theirs to give," complained Chief Abraham, whose Takla First Nation has taken the additional step of restricting access to its territory. "It's not."
'First Nations went through hell'
There is one point on which Aboriginal chiefs and mining executives agree: the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act is broken, and the assessment process is unproductive.
Grand Chief Stewart Phillip is president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs. "The local First Nations who fought both the process and the project went through hell," Chief Phillip said. "And while they are no doubt elated by this decision, they are likely still feeling pain and anguish from the wounds that the process has caused them. They should not have been placed in this situation in the first place. The process through which today's decision was reached must be changed."
Michael McPhie is president of the Mining Association of British Columbia. "We think the decision shows the limitations of the environmental assessment process," McPhie agreed, noting that the Kemess process cost tens of millions of dollars and took three years to complete.
"The EA process was supposed to be technical in nature," McPhie said. "The fact is that these mines are proposing to put tailings underwater for very sound, scientific reasons. And in this case, the panel appears to have found no scientific argument against placing the Kemess tailings underwater. But the EA process in this province is being used to settle unresolved social and cultural considerations -- issues that no environmental panel is equipped to resolve."
First mine ever rejected
And in an era when the Environmental Assessment process had come to be widely regarded as a mere rubber stamp for industry, all sides appeared to be caught off guard by Monday afternoon's report.
"This is very, very unusual," said Meinhard Doelle, an environmental assessment expert who teaches at Dalhousie Law School.
"There are thousands of assessments done under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. As one who follows these fairly closely, I'm only aware of two or three projects that were recommended against." Those involved projects such as a nuclear waste dump and the controversial bridge to Prince Edward Island.
"I'm not aware of any other mine that has been turned down," Doelle said.
Mining Association executive McPhie warned: "This ruling sends a poor message to the international investment community."
Joan Kuyek, who directs the watchdog group Miningwatch, saw the same facts differently: "This decision could go a long way to restoring the public's faith in the environmental assessment of mining projects. Ministers now have the opportunity to enhance or destroy it."
Related Tyee stories:
- Inside BC's Mining Boom
Why billions are pouring in for copper, coal, uranium. - Who Decides on Mines that Pollute?
One lake-killing plan, opposed by First Nations, highlights a growing controversy. - Beware of Mining Hype
Despite PR blitz, First Nations have little to celebrate.
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G West
4 years ago
Oh I don't know about that!
Mining Association executive McPhie warned: "This ruling sends a poor message to the international investment community."
oeanda
4 years ago
question:
what proportion of workers on a mine such as this would have been locals? how much of the billions in profit would have stayed in the community and how much would go to the gov't?
just curious...
BC Mary
4 years ago
It isn't all profit-and-loss
In this glamourous world of corporate buy-and-sell ... where do you buy a beautiful clean new lake next time you want one?
oeanda
4 years ago
found it
http://www.eao.gov.bc.ca/epic/output/documents/p226/1190060338331_fbcde574133f4da8988db3052304d700.pdf
page 221:
Mine operations have annual expenditures of approximately $128 million with taxes to all levels of government totalling $37 million (see Figure 12).
somehow doesn't seem worth it. not that it would be at any cost.
Gary
4 years ago
G West posted the quote that
G West posted the quote that says it all. It's all about the money. And you and I and the native community be damned. Christ these guys make me sick.
Why can't they use their trucks and haul the waste to the South Mine and help fill in the god damn hole they made there.
Bailey
4 years ago
underwater?
I have often wondered. It seems to me that these mine projects are very frequently storing tailings that will be leaching some very deadly poisons for centuries in lakes. Why exactly is that? Does anybody know?
It would seem ordinary sense to replace these tailings in the holes they came out of, then cap them with similar stuff to what they had before. There are clays that, shaped and designed well, will shed water very well for thousands of years, preventing the leaching and containing the poisons much better than running water.
Lakes are lakes because that's where the water goes. If the water goes there for thousands of years before the mining, it will continue to do so after. So, why?
The brain
4 years ago
Excellent questions, Bailey
And they deserve answers. Mainly, its due to cost. The tailings dams would have to be expanded to hold all of the tailings until the mine was completely mined out and then trucked back into the pit/underground structures again, at a major expense. CEO's and stockholders don't much like these ideas, especially considering that tailings dams in the neighborhood of 400+ million tons aren't small and have an excellent risk of coming down mountains in flash floods depending on location. In other words, location is everything and that goes heavily for environmental assessments. Water contamination is always the big factor with any mine due to the acids and cyanide being used to leach gold and other metals from ore.
Essentially, its like this. What makes the risk worth it is the grades and the kind of metal being mined, as well as the location of the mine itself. Base metals like Copper and Zinc are one thing, but gold is another. We need base metals. Do we need gold? Thats the question that really needs to be asked along with the grades... that and the waste.... always the waste, for acids will leach out metals and minerals that might not be desired, such as arsenic and mercury.
I tried to find out the grades of this project, but what I'm guessing considering the tonnage, is that the copper grades are too low to make it feasable to mine environmentally speaking. This is a pure gold play and if the grades are less than 2 grams a ton (wheres that calculator... 414 million tons = 828 billion pounds x 16 = 13.248 trillion ounces of ore divided by 4.1 million ounces = 3 grams per ton of gold. The economics are there if its all open pit (anything 2 grams a ton or more make it worth looking at) the big question from there is whether or not its all open pitable and how much of it is underground.... tried to find out about it on their website at http://www.northgateexploration.ca/
and couldn't come up with the Kemmiss North link on the comp... maybe its being changed as we speak.
NGX is the trade symbol on the TSX.
Considering their own news announcement as well as what G West has to say, its likely that the ministers of this province as well as the Conservative feds will decide to kill the lake. Thats my guess. Greed likes gold and trumps the environment when you have corporate lobbiests running the show.
ME2
4 years ago
8 billion bucks is a LOT of money.
Eight billion bucks worth of minerals is not to be sneezed at – especially given the many spinoffs which will at least triple that number as it flows through our economy. It is not too hard then, to empathise with the neocons who point out that such enterprise lies at the base of the Western World’s high standard of living. As they are quick to emphasise, you and I – including Canadian aboriginals – profit hugely from this system.
On the other hand, ignoring or deliberately minimizing the costs to future generations - who will have to pay the costs of coping with potential negative impacts - is just plain immoral greed for which there is no excuse.
As the story points out, filling the lake with it is the CHEAPEST way of dealing with the waste. However, I’m in agreement with Bailey that the best way to handle it is to put it back in the hole it came out of. To counter Acid Mine Drainage, the pit can be lined with clay, the tailings mixed with limestone, and the whole mess covered up.
The mine’s proponents will respond that doing this or something similar will be too costly. OK, then, leave the stuff in the ground – it isn’t going to go anywhere - and we can all wait until the technology has sufficiently improved to allow doing a more environmentally sensitive job. And even if the technology doesn’t improve, mineral prices will continue to escalate as they get ever scarcer, thus allowing more expensive ways to handle the waste.
Fiat lux
4 years ago
The sale of resources is not
The sale of resources is not an income, but the sale of capital and a liability, leaving behind wrecked ecology and poverty.
Foreign investment is a fraud as it brings nothing to a country. It is a small loan, the priming water to start a permanent flow of from the pump, until the well runs dry, with the public receiving only a small trickle.
The investment is usually some freshly, imaginary money created by a bank. The service costs are tax deductible business expenses, which means that society pays for the whole racket with the loss of real capital and then screwed for the service charges.
We havethe Polley Mtn. copper/gold mine in this area. The huge, overloaded trucks are taking Canada's wealth out of the country, breaking up and cutting deep grooves in the pavement, the wooden bridge over Big Lake Creek has to be rebuilt several times a year. The trucks are going even during the breakup load limit conditions. The company, allegedly, pays $10. million a year in road fines, but the lines on Likely road haven't even been painted this year and driving on the ruts in the pavement in frost conditions is like driving on sheet ice.
The crews have 12 hour working days, the pollution is, allegedly, out of control.
With our "business friendly" governments at all levels, Canada is becoming a huge dump, while the corporations are waiting for the "free movement of labour" under the secretly negotiated SPP racket, so they can
import "cheap" Mexican labour.
Will the Canadian people ever wake up to the fact that they're being stolen blind, screwed and thrown into the garbage with fraudulent economic theories?
Ed Deak, Big Lake.
G West
4 years ago
DO we really?
Profit hugely from this system?
I think that assumption needs some radical re-analysis - now more than ever.
The people who 'profit' from this system are the top 1% of the world's capitalist owners and investors. In relative terms the rest of the population is doing less and less well as a result of the expansion of global business, investment and cut and run extraction. I see Western Forest Products has just been given permission by the government to sell a huge parcel of land on Vancouver Island that was only recently removed from its Tree Farm Licence - let me see if I can find the quote from the Vancouver Sun story.
More than 1,800 hectares of that property, including waterfront parcels stretching from Shirley to Jordan River, are being sold by the company.
When Forests Minister Rich Coleman announced the deal "to bring stability to the company," he was accused of bailing out the company without getting fair value for customers.
Environmentalists such as Ken Wu of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee say one of the few unspoiled areas within reach of Greater Victoria is threatened with "urban sprawl" .
We can't continue to pretend that looking after corporations is the same thing as looking after people and the environment.
In my view, it's time to cut them off.
monty
4 years ago
Cast of Characters
on this Board of Directors--some, well known for their close ties to Gordo, one on Board of Expansion of Convention Centre. Control of this province has been turned over to the real estate folks and developers. Time for a change. Cheers.
SharingIsGood
4 years ago
Not that Canada should ape Japan
Japan has a modern day "world-class" economy with mining its own resources being responsible for 0.2% of its national economy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_mining_industry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture,_forestry,_and_fishing_in_Japan
Certainly BC can use its wealth of resources and educated people to improve other industries that can compete on the world stage - if that is what British Columbians want to do. Wonderfully, sanity has prevaled within this government review panel. If the minerals are needed in the future so much so that it is worth killing a lake and a lifestyle of an indigenous people, then those minerals will be even more valuable later on. Also, those minerals would belong to the indigenous people who use the lake - not some international mining company. We don't need this mine to live well. We merely need to take back and redistribute the wealth that is presently being stolen from the vast majority of BC's citizens.
Certainly, BC could build its own ships instead of farming the job out to Germany, even if our shipyards needed some upgrading. Certainly the expense of upgrading a shipyard could have greater economic benefits than building a toboggan and luge facility. Certainly, they could have decided to hold that venue Alberta instead of spending $105,000,000 for a "Sliding Centre". www.vancouver2010.com/resources/PDFs/07_05_08_VANOC_Business_Plan_EN_e_venuebudget.p
Certainly, British Columbia could become more self-sufficient. Moving to the cities is not helping Britsh Columbia become more self-sufficient, stonger. When people move to the city, they become dependent on the world economy. When more citizens are dependent on the world economy, then the province is more dependent. Dependency indicates weakness. British Columbians are becoming weaker.
ME2
4 years ago
A few years back, SIG, I
A few years back, SIG, I read in an insert in the Scientific American a claim by the Japanese that "Japan is the first country in history to depend entirely upon its technological capabilities"
At that time, the largest timber company in the world was T Itoh, a Japanese company which scoured the world (and maybe still does) for its raw logs. And Japan still does so for a myriad of other raw materials.
The failure of our resource rapers was seen at that time in the fact that the Japanese were buying up our high-grade Sitka Spruce logs at a landed cost to them that was 3-4 times what our local mills could pay.
They were able to do this because they employed the most modern of breakdown machinery, paid very careful attention to recovering the value obtainable with selected cuts, and delivered the material their customers wanted.
Since our mills were depending entirely upon volume production with machinery that was already outdated 30 years prior, it is little wonder they couldn't compete for logs.
So, SIG, it seems to me I've heard at least twice in fairly recent years the announcement that our govrnment is going to turn BC into a marvel of technological innovation. Haven't seen much yet, but maybe if we start selling our water, that will bring in the needed foreign investors.
Monte Paulsen
4 years ago
Northgate CEO to speak about Kemess on Sept. 25
Northgate Minerals will provide an update on the status of the Kemess North Project on Tuesday, September 25, 2007 at 12:55 pm EDT.
Ken Stowe, President and CEO, is scheduled to make a presentation at the Denver Gold Forum. A live webcast will be available at:
http://events.onlinebroadcasting.com/denvergold/092407/index.php
SharingIsGood
4 years ago
It has worked for Central America, NOT!
Me2 says,
Yeah, Me2, all the resource and agriculture-based economies of Central and South America have been having a truly wonderful time of it during the last 500 years. I can't wait to join them.
ME2
4 years ago
Then show me where, SIG
Well, SIG, if you're inferring that somehow our civilisation is more venal than the pre-Columbian ones of Central and South America, then you had better do some reading.
The facts are that their stories are similar to ours inasmuch as they recount endless wars, slavery, ritual killing and so on.
It's even speculated that with their removal of the jungle cover for agriculture, the Maya brought about perennial droughts which brought their culture to ruin.
Read Ronald Wright's A Short History of Progress, and you will see that we are merely the latest in a sorry parade of humans who have despoiled their inherited bounty.
We ARE unusual, however, in that our tremendous technological prowess has telescoped the syndrome into such a short time that it is now obvious within a few generations.
Rather than decrying our technology - which we cannot and will not now turn our back upon - we must employ it for developing sustainable systems.
SharingIsGood
4 years ago
more subjugated than venal, Me2
The Latin American nations have maintained a much greater proportion on indigenous peoples within their populations than have the US and Canada. Europeans and Euro-Americans (by and large) have subjugated the indigenous people of the Americas for the last 500 years.
Now that world's resources are becoming more difficult to find and develop, the world's commodity controllers are looking for more ways to subjugate the non-aboriginal people as well. There are fewer and fewer family farms, more agri-business. Our provincial and federal leaders are fully involved as can be seen by TILMA, NAFTA, NAU, SPP, The Softwood Lumber Deal, exporting raw logs, loosening of mining restrictions, selling the rights to our own hydro-electricity and water, selling other publicly-owned resources such as BC Gas and BC Rail, defacto support for the Iraq war through taking over more NATO commitments, more secrecy in the doings of government, permitting salmon farming to kill off wild salmon, union-busting and privatizing activities in health care, education. The list goes on...
The mainstream media and the Liberals' biography of Gordon Campbell tell us that we have an economic saviour sporting a Dartmouth tie. I'd say we need only to look to the south to see that the Dartmouth ties of that populous nation have used up all of it's easily gotten wealth. Even Greenspan tells us that the Iraq War is about oil. With the forlorn economy of the United States and growing economies of Asia hungry for resources, we find our government following the economic formula that the Ivy Leaguers used to get the US where it is.
Though Canada has no Manifest Destiny aspirations of it's own, it does seem to have leaders with a willingness to succumb to and meld with the crumbling destiny of the USA. We continue to lose our national as well as our personal sovereignty. With the huge amounts of wealth currently being robbed from Canadian citizens (and the future), our governments should be building infrastucure and education centres that engender self-sufficiency. There are enough resources in Canada to build a viable economy within its own borders. Yes, the citizens "buy in" to some degree, but it shouldn't be necessary to trade our country for trinkets from Walmart.