The CEO of a defunct British Columbia miner, Banks Island Gold, has been found guilty of 13 environmental violations in relation to waste discharges from the Yellow Giant mine in 2014, CBC News reported.
The court ruling found that former CEO Benjamin Mossman was “actively or passively involved” in the Yellow Giant mine exceeding permitted amounts of zinc on multiple occasions, polluting fresh water lakes and creeks in and around the exploration sites.
The judge found that in September 2014 “at or near Banks Island, in the Province of British Columbia, being the holder of a permit issued under this Act to introduce wastes into the environment, failed to comply with the requirements of the permit, by exceeding the allowed rate of discharge for zinc.”
Yellow Giant is an underground gold and silver project on British Columbia’s north coast on Banks Island on the eastern shore of the Hecate Strait, 110 km south of Prince Rupert.
The Gitxaała First Nation had expressed concerns about the Yellow Giant mine’s operations.
The property is home to four deposits: Bob in the northwest; Tel 2 km southeast; and Disco and Kim, 2 km east of Tel. Together, these deposits host 78,000 measured and indicated tonnes grading 23 grams gold per tonne and 44 grams silver per tonne, plus 81,000 inferred tonnes averaging 13.7 grams gold and 33 grams silver.
Falconbridge first identified gold at Yellow Giant in the 1970s. Over the next 30 years several companies explored the site, but no one drilled deeper than 150 metres.
After entering production in 2014, the company in 2015 received a pollution abatement order due to “. . . a spill of water with sedimentation which occurred at the backfill dump location on June 25th at the Bob Zone.”
The company was asked to submit a revised plan for tailings, water management and sediment control.
Banks Island Gold initially pushed back against media reports, saying production had not been halted at Yellow Giant, but “significantly impacted” by orders from the provincial government after the company was found to have violated pollution regulations.
The company filed for bankruptcy in January 2016.
The violations, under British Columbia’s Fisheries Act and Environmental Management Act, could result in hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines or imprisonment, CBC reported. A court date has been set for September.
