Red Chris proves B.C. still yields ‘good deposits’
Imperial Metals estimates it will spend the next 30 years extracting gold, copper from site
Nearly six decades have passed since copper and gold deposits were found near Iskut, a Tahltan village in northwestern B.C. Last week, after years of exploration, planning and negotiation, Imperial Metals received a full operating permit from the province to extract those deposits at its controversial Red Chris mine.
It was a big announcement for the Vancouver company, which has faced considerable opposition to the mine from environmental watchdogs, members of the local First Nation and Alaskans. Red Chris is Imperial Metals’ largest mine and one the company sees as producing for years to come, said Steve Robertson, the company’s vice-president of corporate affairs.
“This is a huge milestone for us,” Robertson said. “(Imperial Metals) has been around since the ’50s and we’ve been slowly establishing our foothold in the mining business in the province of B.C. and the Red Chris project will really put us on a new plateau.”
He said the go-ahead is also a big moment for B.C., which may “finally be able to shake that perhaps unfair tag that (it) wasn’t good for mining. … Good deposits can still be found here and they can still be mined here.”
Red Chris’ lifespan is projected to be nearly three decades.
About 350 workers will be employed to dig up the 300 million tonnes of minable reserves, which are destined for overseas markets.
The copper and gold at Red Chris is contained in a porphyry deposit — a large-tonnage, relatively low-grade ore. It requires a type of open-pit mining similar to what Imperial Metals already does at its Mount Polley and Huckleberry mines, Robertson said.
The mine, which started to gear up late last year, is the first to take electricity from the new Northwest Transmission Line. Miners produced its first copper concentrate — crushed, milled and concentrated copper-bearing ore — in February and the company loaded its first shipment of concentrate from Red Chris in April. Company crews will be pushing for continuous operations this year, according to Imperial Metals.
The work will test the company’s plans, including a tailings facility that was scrutinized by an independent engineering, geoscience and environmental consulting firm last year.
The review by Klohn Crippen Berger was demanded by the Tahltan Nation after Imperial Metals’ Mount Polley tailings dam collapsed last summer, releasing millions of cubic metres of water and tailings into the Quesnel Lake watershed. The report — funded by Imperial Metals — found the Red Chris tailings facility design is feasible if constructed properly.
But a major design issue is the “high permeability” of the soils on which the two major earthen dams will be built. If a finegrained “tailings blanket” does not stop seepage, it could cause stability problems and allow significant water to leak, according to the report. The firm made 22 recommendations and noted that “any failure of the Red Chris impoundment will likely have a much more significant environmental impact than the Mount Polley failure.”
Robertson said there were no substantial changes made to its plan for Red Chris, but the company did bump up the scheduling of toe drains used to collect seepage that passes through tailings containment areas.
“We did that earlier than had been planned,” Robertson said. “But those are operational things that our engineers may have picked up on — would have picked up on.”
After the Mount Polley collapse, a group of Tahltan elders set up a blockade at the Red Chris mine and called for a halt on its construction. The company later obtained a provincial court injunction against the blockade.
In April, Tahltan Central Council members voted 87 per cent in favour of accepting a co-management agreement. It gives the Tahltan oversight of environmental issues, guarantees training and jobs and includes a revenue-sharing agreement, according to a news release from the Ministry of Energy and Mines.
Robertson said the agreement with the Tahltan took 28 months to negotiate. The company has held more than 70 community meetings over the last five years, sharing information and trying to get “full buy-in” on the project, he said.
Chad Day, the president of the Tahltan Central Council, said in a news release that the Tahltan’s role in environmental oversight is set to expand with the province’s go-ahead.
“Expanding the mine to its intended capacity will make the jobs, training and other benefits that we are using to build our Nation possible,” he said.
Minister of Energy and Mines Bill Bennett told The Sun it was the three-way collaboration between the province, Imperial Metals and the Tahltan that really led to the project finally going ahead.
“This mine’s opening is important for the reason that it is, I think, setting a higher standard for how we do business in B.C., not just on mining, but on other projects out on traditional territory.”
Bennett said he had personally visited when there were blockades of the project in 2013 and 2014, and said the next time he goes up will be to celebrate the opening of the mine.
“This is progress. This is everybody on the government’s side and on the company’s side realizing and accepting, graciously, that First Nations have a right to be involved in the design and management of a mine, and in receiving a share of the benefits.”
Bennett said he thought there was no legitimate concern that Red Chris would be another Mount Polley. He said the design of the tailings facility is much different and has been independently looked at by different engineering teams, and the dry local climate means there will be little waste water to deal with — at least at first.
“It is very challenging to build mines anywhere in the world today. It used to be a lot easier in some South American countries. It isn’t anymore. It shouldn’t be easy anywhere because there’s a lot of analysis that has to be done, a lot of studies. You have to determine what the environmental risks are, and you have to come up with ways to mitigate those risks,” Bennett said.
Meanwhile, Rob Sanderson Jr., co-chair of the United Tribal Transboundary Mining Work Group, said in a news release that the B.C. government is ignoring the rights and concerns of people who live in southeast Alaska, and Alaskans will continue to fight the project.
Heather Hardcastle, a commercial fisherman and spokeswoman for Alaska-based group Salmon Beyond Borders, said she’s still worried the mine could unleash heavy metals and acidic drainage into the waters, impacting Alaska’s multibillion-dollar fishing and tourism industries.
Alaskans aren’t anti-mining, she added, but people are concerned about how many projects are underway in the pristine region. “We’re talking about a scale and scope of mining activity that’s never been seen before in a place that’s this valuable when it comes to salmon and clean water,” Hardcastle said.
A representative for Alaska does have a seat at the table when it comes to many meetings on B.C. mining, said Bennett.
The minister noted there is work to be done between Alaska and B.C., and said he would like to see a memorandum of understanding on mining between the two governments.