excitement growing in NW BC
Red Chris great for employment in valley
Published: August 04, 2010 5:00 AM
The recent meeting in Terrace regarding the Red Chris mine and the northwest powerline went really well, Smithers mayor Cress Farrow said.
In attendance at the two day tour that was hosted by Imperial Metals was the Honourable Jay Hill, the Honourable Bill Bennett, Brian Kynoch, President and CEO of Imperial Metals, members of the Tahltan, as well as Janine North, NDIT, Northwest Power Line Coalition and Mayors Cress Farrow (Smithers) and Dave Pernarowski (Terrace).
There was lots of good discussion, Farrow said, but more important than that was seeing the mine site in person, especially with Ed Asp, a Tahltan Elder who had staked the claim in 1967.
“He hadn’t been back to the site in 40 years, but he was able to point out the areas on the site,” Farrow said.
Right now, Imperial has a working mine, at a depth of 400 metres, but they’ve found
“It’s a much richer resource … by finding it they could extend the mine for who knows. Right now it’s for 25 years … by extending it a kilometre who knows how long the mine life could be extended to.”
Environmentally, the project looks sound, Farrow added, with the tailings area well away from any water sources.
Currently they have the largest drilling program with five drills on site, Farrow said, which in itself is a huge amount of money flowing into this project, which is proven, viable, all it needs is hydro.
“The day they start construction on the hydro line is the day they start construction on the mine,” Farrow said.
The activities that it will bring in, in terms of revenues, jobs, and supply need look great for the Bulkley Valley, which Farrow said is in an excellent position. During construction the project is expected to employ 600 people, and over 25 years is expected to employ a further 500 people, excluding transportation. Trucking will be going through Stewart, but we’ve got a number of drilling and mining focussed companies here that Red Chris will have access to.
“[The Bulkley Valley] is in a phenomenally good position,” Farrow said. “Smithers is very important to this, to the mining industry, because we’ve got some of the best geologists in the world. They call Smithers local … so you can see that we have a lot of people who will be employed through the mining industry and still be able to live in Smithers.”
Imperial Metals Vice-President of Corporate Affairs Byng Giraud said that Smithers will be important when it comes to the supply chain and services, but when it comes to where their employees choose to live, it will depend on the fly-in, fly-out schedule.
“That will impact flights, which will affect where they choose to live,” Giraud said. “But Smithers will inevitably be important as a source of suppliers, once we’ve worked out that schedule.”
He added that Huckleberry Mine, a mine southwest of Houston that employs 70 from the valley and that Imperial Metals is co-owner of, is nearing the end of its production days, “five more years if we’re lucky”. Those workers could choose to shift to its Red Chris mine site so as not to displace their families.
The informal meeting with the dignitaries was just the beginning, Giraud added, who hopes to address Smithers council at some point in the future, once plans become more formalized.
The transmission line is estimated to cost around $404 million, and the federal government has agreed to provide $130 million. Running from the Terrace substation to Bob Quinn, there are several potential mining projects in the area, who would then build their own powerline from Bob Quinn to their sites.
— With files from Kat Lee