Vanderhoof, B.C. – New Gold Inc. has been issued an environmental assessment certificate for the Blackwater Gold project near Vanderhoof in central British Columbia.
The open-pit gold and silver mine has a proposed footprint of approximately 4,400 hectares approximately 110 km southwest of Vanderhoof with extraction of an estimated 60,000 tonnes of per day and a net annual production of 22 million tonnes per year. New Gold estimates construction of the project will span two years.
B.C. Minister of Environment and Climate change Strategy George Heyman and Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources Michelle Mungall issued the certificate.
“Having considered the Environmental Assessment Office’s (EAO) assessment report, submissions from Indigenous Nations and the recommendation of the EAO’s executive director to issue a certificate, the ministers are confident that Blackwater will be built, operated and closed in a way that ensures that no significant adverse effects are likely to occur,” a B.C. government release stated.
Key conditions for the project include:
- a country foods monitoring plan;
- an air quality and dust management plan;
- a noise and vibration monitoring and mitigation plan;
- a caribou mitigation and monitoring plan;
- a wildlife management plan;
- A community liaison committee and community effects monitoring and management plan;
- Conditions for reducing impacts on water through mitigation measures, water quality analysis, treatment, monitoring and adaptive management and reporting;
- tailings dam safety transparency plan; and
- an Aboriginal group engagement plan.
The Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) collaborated with Lhoosk’uz Dené Nation, Ulkatcho First Nation, and the Carrier Sekani First Nations. The First Nations participated in technical and working group discussions, provided assessments on potential impacts from the mining operation on their interests and worked with the EAO on proposed conditions. The Nazko First Nation was also consulted.
The EAO worked with the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency to conduct coordinated assessments including joint public comment periods, coordinated consultation with Indigenous groups and the public, co-chairing working group meetings and identifying technical issues during review of information provided by New Gold. A federal decision statement was issued on April 15, 2019 to allow the project to proceed pending additional permits and authorizations.
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