SMITHERS, B.C.—A B.C. mine project has been denied environmental approval due to concerns it could impact fish and water in the Morrison Lake region.
Pacific Booker Minerals Incorporated (PBM) was not granted an environment assessment certificate for its Morrison Copper/Gold Project. The company was planning to build an open-pit copper, gold and molybdenum mine and ancillary facilities with a project footprint of 2,028 hectares and production of 30,000 tonnes per day, located approximately 65 kilometres northeast of Smithers.
The proposed mine site was located on the territory of the Lake Babine Nation and upstream of the territories of the Gitanyow and Gitxsan First Nations. A portion of the proposed transmission line was on the territory of Yekooche First Nation.
The project first applied for the certificate in 2010 but was denied in 2012 after ministers found the mine could impact the region’s wild sockeye salmon and hurt water quality. The company sought a judicial review of the decision and in 2013 the B.C. Supreme Court set aside the 2012 decision and directed that the application for an environmental assessment certificate be reconsidered because the proponent did not have the opportunity to review and comment on the Environmental Assessment Office’s (EAO) recommendations that were provided to ministers for decision.
In August 2014, the minister of environment suspended the reconsideration process to allow the EAO to seek the views of the company and Indigenous nations on the report of the Independent Expert Engineering Investigation and Review Panel into the failure of the tailings pond at the Mount Polley Mine to further inform the ministers’ decision.
The project was asked to undergo more assessment to collect additional baseline information and analysis to ensure a thorough and accurate analysis of the project’s risks to water quality, salmon and the broader environment.
The Further Assessment Order issued by ministers laid out the information PBM would need to provide to continue development of the project.
The first step was to submit a satisfactory draft Supplemental Application Information Requirements (SAIR) document. Between 2016 and 2021, PBM submitted three draft SAIRs that did not meet the requirements set out in the Further Assessment Order, stated the province.
Officials said to address the lack of progress, the EAO proposed options for progressing or completing the further assessment process and engaged with the project team, Lake Babine, Gitanyow, Gitxsan and Yekooche First Nations.
“The consensus option with all parties was a preference for or a non-objection to the Further Assessment Order being rescinded,” said the province. “The Further Assessment Order was rescinded on Dec. 2, 2021, and the decision materials from 2015 were resubmitted to ministers for a decision on whether to issue an environmental assessment certificate for the Morrison Copper/Gold Project.”
Because the company has not submitted additional information to demonstrate that risks to water quality and fish can be suitably mitigated by the Morrison Copper/Gold Project, the ministers have decided not to issue an environmental assessment certificate.
Recent Comments
comments for this post are closed