Red Chris Mine Permit Issued, Tahltan Not Happy
Friday, May 4, 2012 @ 5:01 PM
Dease Lake, B.C.- The Red Chris Development Corporation has been issued a Mines Act permit for its Red Chris copper and gold mine which is located 80 km south of Dease Lake in northern B.C.
Red Chris Development Corporation, a subsidiary of Imperial Metals Corporation, projects the capital cost of this development to be around $444 million and it will provide 250 full time jobs. The site is estimated to have a mine life of 28 years with a reserve of 276 million tonnes of copper and gold.
The mine will be serviced by the new Northwest Transmission Line, which will begin construction in the summer 2012 and be completed in 2014. Once the mine is fully operational, material from the mine will be produced
daily and transported to the Port of Stewart where it will be shipped to overseas markets.
To encourage collaboration on this project, the Red Chris Monitoring Committee will be established and provide a forum for First Nations, government and the company to review and address environmental concerns and potential impacts throughout the life of the mine.
The Tahltan Nation expressed opposition today to the permitting. "We have been expressing concerns about the impacts of this proposed mine to our communities, our traditional practices, our environment, our cultural values and our Aboriginal title and rights for years" said Annita McPhee, President of the Tahltan Central Council that represents the collective Aboriginal title and rights interests of the Tahltan Nation. "This mine has a proposed life-span of 40 years, and poses risks for the Klappan, one of the most sensitive and important areas for the Tahltan People. Not everything has been done to address our concerns about long-term pollution to our water, and the damage to a landscape that our people have relied on to feed and support themselves since time immemorial. We do not accept that it can proceed without having our concerns properly addressed."
"Our people will be here, living on this land, long after this mine closes. We are the ones that have to live with these impacts and risks" said Ms. McPhee. "Decisions like this, which don’t appropriately take our interests into account, undermine our trust in the Province and make it extremely difficult to work together. We will have to look at all options going forward."
Comments
Not surprised…has a First Nations band ever been happy about a development?
Prob upset cause they weren’t offered enough money to keep them happy typical band mentality
Of course, the investors in the mine and the company are developing it for the money they can make out of it by extracting minerals and selling them to foreign customers. Any pollution they leave behind as that would cost money to fix. Taking care of resident concerns means they wouldn’t make enough money to keep them happy. Typical corporate mentality.
ammonra: “Of course, the investors in the mine and the company are developing it for the money they can make out of it by extracting minerals and selling them to foreign customers.”
And they are then made into products that we buy in North America. So what’s your point?
ammonra,who says there will be pollution left behind, and where did all the raw materials for your stuff come from? Where do you think wages and taxes come from? What is you solution? Out with it.
I think ammonra’s point is the people who reside in this area feel ownership to it. Therefore as owners they feel they have a say in what they own is sold for. Just like any business if they decide to sell their products they feel they have a right to say for how much. Whether the market will bare how much they want to sell it for only matters with how badly they want to sell it.
Of course there is another debate on whether these people in the Red Chris area really are the owners of the area, a different debate.
I on the other hand am a citzen of BC, there is absolutely no dispute that as a citizen of BC have ownership of the area. Therefore have every right to say whether the product Red Chris is after is for sale and for how much I am willing to sell it for. Also as owner I may dictate the sale as for what the conditions of that sale are. Which could include cleaning up after the product was extracted. Also as owner I may have conditions to the sale with respect to the people who reside there. Again, depends on what the market will bare and, how badly I want to sell.
I see no difference between what the people of the Red Chriss area want, what the people of BC want, or what business wants.
It all depends on ownership and whether the owner wants to sell it and for how much.
So taxed out the buyer pays the taxes, right.
Not sure what you mean seamutt.
Really tired of people thinking it’s the god-almighty dollar that dictates whether natives are on board, or not.
IT’S ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT, STUPID!
They raise concerns about potential long term affected areas as in water and landscape. How unreasonable is that? They are the ones living there, not the corporate/gov heads. It comes down to sitting down and having meaningful dialogue. First Nations have shown they can be pro-development. What’s needed is respect all around, not the ram-rod approach gov’t feels it is entitled to do.
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