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Red Chris copper and gold project site.
Canadian Imperial Metals (TSX:III), the company that drew international attention due to a massive spill of mine waste in British Columbia early this month, said it is ready to begin operations at its Red Chris copper and gold mine in the province once a power line is completed in September.
Announcing an agreement with the local First Nations’ representatives, the Tahltan Central Council (TCC), the miner said Tuesday a third-party will be in charge of reviewing the tailings impoundment at the new mine to make sure it meets world-class standards in terms of design, engineering, operation and construction.
That third-party will be chosen by the TCC, the firm added.
Red Chris, in northwest B.C., is located near the Iskut River, a major tributary of the Stikine River, which ends in southeast Alaska and it is considered one of the largest salmon habitats in the Tongass National Forest. This has triggered rising anxiety among the mine’s neighbours, locally and across the border.
“In Southeast Alaska, we will absorb nothing but risk,” Brian Lynch of the Petersburg Vessel Owner’s Association told JuneauEmpire.com. “A breach like [Mount Polley’s] would be a disaster (…) These systems produce a lot of salmon for our billion-dollar-a-year industry.”
“Sooner or later [the tailings dams] are going to fail,” Guy Archibald, mining and clean water coordinator at the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, was quoted as saying. “It’s not a matter of ‘if,’ but ‘when.’”
According to Imperial Metals’ website, the mine will process almost 30,000 tons of ore per day for 28 years. And after the Mount Polley disaster locals are saying a similar breach would ruin both the environment and the state’s economy.
Image courtesy of Imperial Metals
6 Comments
Chris Armstrong
The statement “Sooner or later [the tailings dams] are going to fail” is just plain WRONG ! A properly designed and engineered tailings pond can be planted and integrated into the environment without failures, throughout the life of the mine, or, throughout the latter portion of the mine’s life, and “forever after”. Of course, the local topography plays an extremely important part in the cost and design and operation of the tailings facility. The Potash Mines of Saskatchewan obviously are much less problematic than the giant open pit copper mines of the Highland Valley/Logan Lake and the Gibraltar Mine north of Williams Lake, BC. Dozens of successful mines have closed in Canada without subsequent tailings pond failures. Let’s name a few: Bissett, Brunswick Mining & Smelting, Camflo, Casa Berardi, Chibougamau, Endako, Eskay Creek, Flin Flon, Gaspe Copper, Geco & Willroy Manitouwadge, Granduc, Huckleberry, Keno Hill, Kerr Addison, Kirkland Lake (mile of gold – 6 mines), Lynn Lake, Mattagami Lake, Noranda, Rabbit Lake, Red Lake, Shefferville, Snow Lake, Sullivan Mine Kimberly, Sudbury Mines (16 – some still operating), Timmins & Porcupine Mines, Thompson Mines, Trout Lake, Val d’Or 4 Mines. These successful mines have put $billions into the Canadian economy, and you are hard pressed to find any endeavour in the world that does NOT depend on mined metals.
geezer321
Tailing ponds do last forever. Once completed tailings ponds are dry and filled with solid tailing particulate matter, like a fine sand. They are then covered over with a vegetative grass or grass and shurbs.
Matt
Mr. Archibald. First of all congratulations on your high salary at the SACC. I truly wished that all of us could make a living like you, but remember if there was no mining you too would have to make a living riding around on a bamboo bicycle selling wildflowers to someone who was selling wildflowers back to you. The fact is 1 tailings dam failure is 1 too many, but it is the exception not the rule as you present it. In fact your statement is a sign of complete ignorance. Are you sure that herb you smoked is native to Southeast Alaska?
armin
Sorry Rod, I’m in the same camp as Chris and Matt. Mr. Archibald’s statements are NOT backed up by data and are a very simple generalization. If we stick to facts mining has evolved over the years to an industry that is held accountable for environmental and social issues.
Dawn Keyote
You can add Brenda mines in the Okanogan Valley to that list.
Previous Mine manager was challenged to drink the water runoff at that time and accepted that as well, Gordon Harris.
Brenda Mines continues to monitor and treat water after shutdown.
Dawn Keyote
alaskaguy2
See: http://www.wise-uranium.org/mdaf.html for a chronology of world-wide tailings dam failures back to 1961. Average failure rate is 1.8 per year. Please give an example of a tailings dam that has lasted forever.