Blackwater Mine Project Enters Environmental Assessment Phase
Monday, November 5, 2012 @ 3:59 AM
B.C. Government map of significant mining projects shows location of the Blackwater project – map courtesy B.C. Goverment
Prince George. B.C. – The mining sector continues to move forward with the latest push being for the Blackwater gold mine project.
Located on the Nechako Plateau on the north side of Mount Davidson about 160 km south west of Prince George, and 110 kms southwest of Vanderhoof, the Blackwater project covers just over 252 square kms of property.
The project has completed the preliminary economic assessment, and is moving forward with a feasibility study that is expected to be completed by the end of next year. The company, “New Gold”, has submitted a project description to the Provincial and Federal governments meaning the environmental assessment process is now underway.
The Blackwater mine would be a conventional truck and shovel open pit operation with a 60,000 tonne per day whole ore leach process plant. New Gold hopes to start production in 2017.
According to the company’s early assessments, this mine has an initial lifespan of 15 years over which it would produce , on average, 507 thousand ounces of gold each year and more than 2 million ounces of silver.
The company has just wrapped up a series of open houses in the communities of Burns Lake, Ft. St. James, Fraser Lake and Vanderhoof. About 180 people attended the sessions.
“It’s encouraging to see the level of interest in the project,” says New Gold CEO Bob Gallagher.
Those who attended also learned about possible employment opportunities with the project expecting to employ 1,000 to 1,500 people at the peak of construction, and 500 full time workers during the life of the mine.
New Gold has already opened a Blackwater Project Office in Vanderhoof and as of the end of September, has spent 93 million dollars on the project. That amount includes exploration and infrastructure related expenses.
New Gold also operates the New Afton mine near Kamloops. That mine started production earlier this year.
Comments
…don’t tell me: Don’t allow it. It is going to pollute all of the Central Interior. It will be on sacred ground that may or may not have been seen from afar by an aboriginal 1000 years ago. Of course it will have, not only Chinese workers, but underage ones.
Oh yeah and the NDP will promise to shut it down if elected.
To Styxxx— Just gotta Love it. Thanks.
good one
Hey now…I’ve got friends that work at that New Afton gold mine near Kamloops. They’re definitely not Chinese ;)
Give the sorry state of the forest down there I’d like to see it go ahead simply because of the jobs it would provide. If done properly then that mine would make a minimal impact on the environment.
As usual the “”straight ahead at all costs” crowd want to assume that those who have some concern for environmental issues and other things besides the almighty dollar MUST be against ALL forms of resource extraction. There is definately no middle ground with those guys, they are the exact example of what they THINK those with an environmental concsience are…unyielding and unreasonable.
At what point does even the die-hard unregulated free market enterprising capitalist say enough is enough? In the example of oil lets say….should 10 pipelie breachs be a warning? 20? 50? 100? before even those die hards question the competency of a companies ethics and promises? Do you guys know any company that wants to do business here in BC that has that kind of track record? Surely someone as incompetent as that wouldn’t be awarded a permit based on record alone. Lets not confuse those companies with those who have no history of damaging the environment, or at the very least, some morals and ethics to want to do the right thing.
Don’t worry, when the NDP gets re-elected, they’ll shut down the mining sector and bury it in red tape like they did the last time.
As for But’s comments, do some real research on pipeline safety, not just reading what the media spoon feeds you and educate yourself.
JohnnyBelt@You make it sound like fear of pipeline breaches is misplaced. Actually, research on pipeline safety reveals that spills happen frequently, that Enbridge has a poor record of dealing with them, and that diluted bitumen appears to be much harder to clean up than crude oil. And of course in the case of the Northern Gateway there is also the enormous risk of running tankers through Douglass Channel.
Don’t worry, if the Liberals get re-elected they will keep the HST which is good for businesses (apparently) and they will raise the carbon tax and allow Hydro and natural gas rates to sky rocket….then they will lower the minimum wage and throw all the old people that are in supported housing out into the streets to live with all the mental hospital patients they’ve already ejected. Then they will sell bc hydro and ICBC….and raw log exports will triple . :-)
I’d be willing to look at this proposal with an open mind. So far it looks like it would be a great project for this region with a lot of really good quality jobs. I guess one would wonder how well they look at environmental issues… at least its not upwater from PG lol.
As for pipelines… just look at the mess the 750,000 barrels of oil did to New York Harbor after Sandy. The oil industry clearly just can not be trusted… waiting three days to even notify the public of the spill… same company this is shipping Alberta oil sands out of Vancouver Harbor….
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