BCBusiness

arLen reDekoP/PnG sTaff PhoTo January 2015 BCBusiness 69 Imperial Metals, and the company is likely facing a hefty remediation and reclamation bill some experts believe could top $100 million. Meanwhile, the company's Red Chris goldmine, slated to begin production this year, is now squarely in the crosshairs of environ- mentalists and other opponents. Mitigating the impacts of waste and tailings from hard rock mines is a com- plex engineering challenge that per- sists for many years beyond the active life of mines, due to acid rock drainage that can contaminate water. Defunct mines, such as the short-lived Mt. Washington Mine on Vancouver Island and the Equity Silver Mine near Smith- ers, have left behind many decades of costly environmental clean-up. That's why Red Chris is quickly turning into a hornet's nest for Imperial. In August, a group of Tahltan First Nation elders, known as Klabona Keepers, blockaded the road leading to Red Chris, prompt- ing the Vancouver-based miner to turn to the courts on October 3 to ask for an injunction to remove the protesters. The cascading impact of the Mount Polley spill now extends beyond Impe- rial Metal's sphere of operations. Then- senator Mark Begich from Alaska, in a letter to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry shortly after the incident, wrote that the spill com- pounds fears among his constituents that the B.C. government isn't up to the task of monitoring hard rock metal mines that potentially impact Alaskan waters. Begich told Kerry that he "was shocked by the video of this mas- sive breech" and that it "raises serious questions about provincial permitting and oversight of this industry." He urged the secretary to put pressure on B.C. to bolster its regulations. It's not the first time the question of oversight has been raised. A 2011 B.C. auditor general report concluded that for projects like dams and mines, "adequate monitoring is not occurring and follow up evaluations are not being conducted." According to the Victoria- based Professional Employees Associa- tion, a labour union representing the interests of professionals across B.C., the B.C. government has cut licensed science officers responsible for mining by 21 per cent since 2004. B.C.'s energy and mines minister Bill Bennett admits funding and staff- ing levels sagged in 2009 and 2010 but says that a $20-million budget boost for the "dirt ministries" in 2011 has improved field presence. According to the ministry, the last geotechnical inspection at Mount Polley occurred in 2013 and resulted in no orders relating to the tailings storage facility. "We had a dip in inspections between 2009 and 2011, but I think the notion that this is directly related to what happened at Polley this year is unfair," Bennett says. Shortly after the August spill, Bennett announced three separate inquiries: an independent engineer- ing investigation will report to the Ministry of Energy and Mines by Jan. 31, 2015, detailing the root causes of the failure; a dam safety inspection by the chief inspector of mines for all of B.C.'s tailings storage facilities by Dec. 1, 2014; and another investigation by the Conservation Officer Service that will decide whether charges under the Crown are war- ranted. In late October, Minister Bennett also a n n o u n c e d t h a t amendments to the Mines Act would allow for more time to conduct thor- ough investigations. The amendment is effective retroactively to August 1, 2014, and applies to all ongoing investigations, including Mount Polley. Until all these investigations are complete and reports are in, how- ever, Bennett is not pointing fingers or accepting responsibility for the spill. "Perhaps there's something the minis- try could have done better, or it might be a purely technical explanation. At this point, I don't know what it will be," he says. The minister does know that Polley has had a considerable negative impact on B.C.'s reputation as a respon- sible mining jurisdiction. That's why he travelled to Alaska the first week

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