Acadian Buy's Mink Coats...Its like a blow by blow soap opera here in Halifax... stay tuned tomorrow for the next installment of the Mink Soap Opera...
Acadian to compensate farmerfor scaring mink
By CHRIS LAMBIE Business Editor
Sat. Apr 17 - 4:53 AM
AHalifax-based junior mining and exploration company says it will doright by a Guysborough County mink farmer whose animals were spooked byits recent helicopter survey.
Acadian Mining has hired Canadian Mining Geophysics Ltd. of Torontoto conduct high-resolution airborne magnetic surveys by helicopter over145 kilometres of mostly wilderness stretching from northeast of Halifaxto east of Goldboro. But those flights prompted a complaint from NewHarbour mink farmer Bradley Nickerson, who said the noise from thelow-flying chopper was upsetting his animals.
"Mink are very finicky and this time of year they’re in birthingseason," Paul Smith, Acadian’s vice-president of field operations, saidFriday.
"When mink get spooked they tend to get stressed, and when they getstressed then they have a tendency to abort some of their unbornfetuses."
The mink scare "shouldn’t have happened," Smith said.
"Ninety per cent of the area that we’re flying over has nothing toworry about," he said.
"Most people are really enthusiastic about seeing a helicopter in theair above them. But most people don’t farm mink."
Nickerson, who couldn’t be reached for comment, has 3,500 pregnantfemale mink, Smith said.
"I’ve been an animal farmer as well in the past," said Smith, whoused to have cattle in the Annapolis Valley.
"I know what it’s like when animals get spooked. It was just one ofthose unfortunate things."
Smith contacted Nickerson and they’ve agreed to meet in a few weeksto assess the damages.
"He’s in the middle of this birthing cycle and it will take two tothree weeks," Smith said. "I’ll get together with him after that and seewhether or not it was a minor blip or a medium blip or a moresignificant blip when it comes to any mortality that he might have had."
Acadian would look at compensating the mink farmer for his losses, hesaid.
"We would call in probably a vet or something to say, ‘Listen, whatmight you expect normally in this type of scenario?’ And we’ll look atwhat the additional thing is that we might have some responsibility in."
But it’s too early to tell whether the impact on the mink wassignificant and what "any compensation would look like," Smith said. "Ihave no idea at this point."
As of Thursday night, one of Nickerson’s mink had aborted twofetuses, and only two survived from another litter of eight, Smith said.
The aerial survey is complete in the area where the mink farm islocated, he said.
"We do have another day or so down in the Tangier area and we’vecontacted a bunch of people there to ensure that it’s not going to causeany confusion."
Golden River Resources is picking up the tab for the aerial survey,pegged at less than $500,000.
The major Australian gold mine developer, a subsidiary of LegendInternational Holdings, bought a controlling 69 per cent stake inAcadian last year for $10 million.
The helicopter is flying close to the ground, looking for magneticanomalies that could indicate the presence of gold.
"We have some very preliminary stuff back," Smith said. "Nothing wecan report on at this point."
( clambie@herald.ca)