Tahltan approves management deal for Red Chris mine
Agreement will provide jobs, cash and environmental oversight of gold-copper mine in northwest B.C.
The Tahltan Nation has approved an agreement with Imperial Metals under which it will share revenue from the $643-million Red Chris gold and copper mine and be involved in environmental oversight of the mine.
A co-management agreement, which the First Nation is calling “historic,” was supported by 87 per cent of those who voted in a referendum. Of the Tahltan’s 2,000 eligible voters, just under 500 voted.
Details of the agreement are being kept confidential, however it includes provisions for training and jobs. Environmental oversight provisions require that a majority of environmental monitors will be Tahltan, whose traditional territory is in northwestern B.C.
Already, 20 to 30 per cent of the workforce at the mine is First Nation members, said Chad Day, president of the Tahltan Central Council.
“My personal goal is that we have at least 50 per cent Tahltan employment within the next 10 years,” Day said in an interview.
Day called the agreement a big step for the Tahltan people.
“Tahltan people have been living on our lands for more than 10,000 years, so it makes sense for us to be involved in making sure our lands, waters and wildlife are protected for everyone without affecting our title and rights,” he said in a written statement.
The Red Chris mine, which recently went into production, has been in the spotlight because Imperial Metals also owns the Mount Polley gold and copper mine where there was a catastrophic failure of the tailings dam last summer. The failure of the earth-and-rock dam released millions of cubic metres of water and finely-ground rock containing potentially-toxic metals into the Quesnel Lake watershed.
While there were already environmental provisions in a draft agreement for the Red Chris project before the Mount Polley incident, those were beefed up after the tailings dam failure, said Day. Those provisions include regular third-party reviews of the tailings facilities which will be reported both to the Tahltan and the company.
“We will make sure that Imperial Metals is going to follow through on the recommendations that come out of these third-party reviews and recommendations that come out of the committees we have in place,” he said.
Following the Mount Polley dam failure, the Tahltan successfully demanded a third-party review of the tailings facilities, paid for by Imperial Metals.
The review by Klohn Crippen Berger found the Red Chris tailings facility design was feasible if constructed properly.
However, the review found design deficiencies and called for increased monitoring. The engineering firm made 22 recommendations, which Imperial Metals agreed to follow.