BC First Nation files ‘urgent’ injunction to halt tailings dam construction at Mount Polley mine

A British Columbia First Nation filed on Friday an injunction application on an “urgent basis” in Supreme Court to halt construction to raise the dam at the former Mount Polley gold mine.

The Xatśūll First Nation is part of the larger Secwepemc (Shuswap) nation, located in the Cariboo region of the Canadian province.

The Xatśūll first filed a judicial review on April 15 with the Supreme Court of BC against the province’s minister of mining and critical minerals, the minister of environment and parks, the provincial deputy permitting officer, major mines offices, and the Mount Polley Mining Corporation (MPMC) to overturn two provincial decisions authorizing MPMC to raise the height of the dam at its tailings storage facility (TSF).

“As part of regular mine operations at Mount Polley, we recently received government approval to raise the height of our TSF by 4 metres. This kind of work is a normal and necessary part of operating any mine that stores tailings using a dam structure,” MPMC said in a statement on April 16.

The First Nation alleges provincial decision makers allowed work to proceed without an environmental assessment, which is legally required in the circumstances.

“This is the same dam that breached and so devastated the Xatśūll territory in 2014. The impacts of that environmental disaster are still harming the Nation’s rights, culture and way of life today,” Xatśūll said in a statement on April 25.

On August 4, 2014, a breach at the Mount Polley copper-gold mine sent the equivalent of 2,000 Olympic swimming pools of mining waste into a creek, tearing a swath as much as 45 metres wide down the previously metre-wide waterway.

Ten years after the dam breach, 15 charges were laid against Imperial Metals (TSX: III), the parent company of MPMC, and engineering firm Wood Canada for alleged violations of the federal Fisheries Act, arising from the failure of the TSF at the Mount Polley mine.

When the Xatśūll Nation filed the judicial review on April 15, it said it notified Mount Polley the same day that it intended to file an injunction to halt construction of the tailings dam raise and subsequent operations of the tailings dam facility at increased dam height until a decision was made by the court.

Imperial Metals released a statement on April 23 acknowledging Xatśūll “alleges that the provincial decision-makers approved this work using a process that did not include what it considers to be a legally required environmental assessment, and that the decisions were made in breach of alleged duties owed to Xatśūll as an Indigenous people.”

“Throughout the permitting process, [Imperial and MPMC] have actively engaged with Xatśūll and the Williams Lake First Nation, including providing funding for independent reviews and implementing recommendations to enhance operations,” the company said in the statement.

“The Williams Lake First Nation and MPMC have maintained a positive working relationship for over a decade, formalized through a Participation Agreement which was renewed in 2022, and the Williams Lake First Nation are supportive of the provincial decisions and Mount Polley’s current permitting applications under review.”

In its statement on April 25, Xatśūll said that Brian Kynoch, president of Imperial Metals, informed Xatśūll that Mount Polley “would not be agreeing to hold off on construction” and that “construction had already begun.”

“In light of this development, Xatśūll was compelled to file its injunction application on an urgent basis.”

Xatśūll said it anticipates its injunction application will be heard by the Supreme Court in early May.