No to Kamloops mine
Okanagan Edge Staff - Dec 14, 2017 - Biz Releases

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The provincial government has said no to a copper and gold mine KGHM International had hoped to build near Kamloops.

The Ajax Project would have been a 1,700-hectare, open-pit copper and gold mine, located approximately 10 kilometres southwest of Kamloops and on the asserted traditional territories of several First Nations.

Today, the government agencies that had been considering the project’s environmental impact announced they won’t be granting KGHM International an environmental assessment permit for the mine.

Environment and Climate Change Strategy Minister George Heyman; and Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources Minister Michelle Mungall said that, taken as a whole, “the potential, and in many cases significant, adverse effects of the Ajax project outweighed the potential benefits.”

Key findings from the environmental assessment noted by the ministers include:

-Fifty-three residual and cumulative adverse effects across the five pillars assessed by the EAO (environmental, economic, social, heritage and health) in areas such as air quality and human well-being, Jacko Lake and surrounding area, social and economic valued components, as well as grasslands and ecosystems;

-The conclusion by the EAO that 21 of these adverse effects were of moderate-to-high magnitude;

-In addressing the 21 high-to-moderate-magnitude adverse effects, the EAO had low-to-moderate confidence in its assessment of nine of the effects;

-The compounding potential of the adverse effects;

-Significant adverse effects to Indigenous heritage and to the current use of lands and resources for traditional purposes.

The ministers acknowledged the” high importance of the area to the culture of SSN,” and agreed the Ajax project “would result in significant adverse effects to Indigenous heritage and to the current use of lands and resources for traditional purposes.”

Notwithstanding the mitigation measures and EA certificate conditions proposed by the EAO, the project would also “have adverse impacts on SSN’s asserted Aboriginal rights and title, which in many cases, could not be avoided or minimized. The ministers concluded these effects were unacceptable in the circumstances.”

Given these conclusions, and the close proximity of Ajax to the City of Kamloops, particularly the neighbourhood of Aberdeen, including an elementary school, the ministers concluded the adverse effects would not likely be mitigated to an acceptable level and would therefore present an unacceptable risk.


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