( )
January 2015 BCBusiness 65 bcbusiness.ca
B
ritish Columbia's mining industry is
still smarting from a steep drop in
prices of some of its key commodi-
ties such as coal, copper and gold.
The latest downturn, now well into its
third year, has forced many companies
to slash spending across the board on
everything from staff to capital costs,
stall development of new projects and
put some existing ones on hold. Exam-
ples include the delayed restart of Teck
Resources Ltd.'s Quintette coal mine,
which operated for nearly 18 years up
until 2000, and the suspension of oper-
ations at Anglo American plc's Peace
River Coal mine, both due to slumping
coal prices.
That's in sharp contrast to early
2011, when commodity prices bounced
back from the global recession, hitting
record or near-record highs. Back then,
miners were musing about ramping
up operations and readying to hit the
start button on a handful of new mines,
including Copper Mountain in 2011,
New Gold Inc.'s New Afton gold in 2012
and Thompson Creek Metals Co.'s Mt.
Milligan copper/gold mine in 2013.
Association for Mineral Exploration
BC president and
CEO Gavin Dirom sees
the next year or two as a "rebuilding"
phase for miners in B.C. Companies will
be re-evaluating the economics of new
projects if metal prices stay depressed,
while trying to find financing from tight-
fisted investors. Meantime, the opening
of the Northwest Transmission Line last
fall is expected to help advance a hand-
ful of projects in northern B.C. "I think
we'll see a number of projects progress
but not necessarily get into production
or operation," says Dirom.
While the market may be down, don't
count B.C. miners out. Many continue
to plot their comeback, including the
ongoing development of new projects
on the horizon. In the pages that follow,
we explore some of the more advanced
projects in the province.
B.C.'s mining
industry looks to
rebuild in 2015, after
three tough years
by Brenda Bouw
Silver liningS
or gold
or Copper
in Search of
UNDER THE SURFACE
Pretium hopes to have
Brucejack Mine, an
underground gold/silver
mine north of Stewart,
in operation by 2017.
m i n i n g ' S
pivotal Year
