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Please find attached to this email, today's news release (in pdf format) in regards to the posting of the Annual Financials, the 20-F and some details on the upcoming AGM.
A member of our News Group who has worked as an Assistant Professor of Geological Engineering for Queen's University and as a Research Scientist for the Geological Survey of Canada has written an opinion piece on the Morrison for sharing with the News Group. In January 2021, we shared his story of why he became interested in the Morrison and his correspondence with the Minister/EAO in regards to the Morrison.
Here is his latest piece for your information:
Further thoughts on the Morrison Project environmental certificate rejection The latest news release regarding the non-renewal of Pacific Booker’s mining lease makes me think back to the ill-informed TV interview and newspaper comments made by then BC environment minister Terry Lake on the Morrison Project. By this time, Pacific Booker had revised the Morrison Project tailings storage design to include a polyethylene liner, to the satisfaction of the BC Environmental Assessment Office (BCEAO). Shortly thereafter, the project environmental assessment certificate was denied. Responding to the denial, Lake states that lining tailings facilities with polyethylene had never been done in BC, implying that this measure was untried technology.
Of course, there is Klohn Crippen Berger’s (KCB) letter outlining the extent of poly liner use throughout the world, including in BC. In addition I recently listened to a presentation from the Canadian Geotechnical Society on the success of the Ontario Hydro project at Niagara Falls, where an 11-kilometer-long tunnel, 14 m in diameter, has been carrying water for hydroelectric generation since 2013. One component of the tunnel lining is poly, required to guarantee that the tunnel does not leak. KCB states in the same letter that they are actively partnered with Queen’s University on major research into tailings lining design. If Minister Lake had cared to apprise himself of the current state of lining use, he would have found a highly advanced technology oriented to minimizing leakage. Assuming a lack of care in liner installation, seepage rates from the planned tailings storage facility might reach 1 cubic m per day with developed liner technology, one tenth of the estimate in Pacific Booker’s 2011 Environmental Assessment Certificate application.
BCEAO’s August 2012 response to the certificate application includes some statements regarding the tailings storage facility (TSF) that suggest an inaccurate application of groundwater flow principles. After stating that ‘Seepage would have been relatively low in early years of operation’, the report goes on to say that seepage, ‘would have increased as more water and tailings are put into the TSF.’ In fact, seepage would likely remain the same as the tailings thickness increased because the average flow path length would be increasing along with the hydraulic head increase. Elsewhere, the BCEAO report criticizes the proponent’s choice of the highest possible site for the TSF. In terms of seepage, the height is essentially immaterial. Similar to filling the TSF, the higher the location, the further seepage must travel, maintaining a more or less constant hydraulic gradient.
In terms of assessing the project’s potential for lake contamination, the two nearby decommissioned mines on Babine Lake serve as a useful comparison with the Morrison Project. The Bell and Granisle mines ceased production three and four decades ago, respectively. These mines have most recently been the subject of a SkeenaWild Conservation Trust-commissioned study that reports some dissolved metal levels in Babine Lake. Copper is considered the most problematic for salmon. The waste rock dumps and tailings from these two mines as sources for leached metals are the focus of the report. It is interesting to note that the tailings from these two mines are quite close to the lake, less than one-half km and quite elevated, about 50 m. The TSF for Morrison would be about 3 km from and about 200 m above Morrison Lake. Thus the seepage gradient would be less than for the Babine Lake tailings. Unlike the Babine facilities, the TSF would also be lined so seepage from the TSF is essentially a non-issue.
The Granisle mine has waste rock placed right in Babine Lake and both mines have rock on elevated terrain near the open pits. Morrison will have its waste rock placed in the completed open pit, filling it almost to the level of Morrison Lake. While concern was expressed by the BCEAO over the possibility of seepage from the filled Morrison pit into Morrison Lake, the final large flat area of the pit at almost the same elevation as Morrison Lake will result in very low hydraulic gradients, if any, between the two bodies. Compared with the Babine Lake mines, the considerable setback of the Morrison TSF from Morrison Lake and filling of the open pit to bring the filled level almost coincident with Morrison Lake presents a much reduced potential for contaminant movement via seepage.
Various reports examining the toxicity of dissolved metals to salmon note copper as the most problematic. The general BC water quality guideline for copper is 3.6 ug/l (micrograms per liter or parts per billion) while the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment sets the guideline at 4.0 ug/l. BC water quality requirements to ensure non-lethality of copper to salmon are 2 ug/l averaged over 30 days with the highest value not to exceed 5 ug/l. Copper levels appear to have responded to the presence of the Babine Lake mines, based on a 1995 Department of Fisheries and Oceans review. During the mid-1970s, copper levels are reported as averaging 4.2 ug/l for sampling sites near the mines, compared with an average of 2.2 ug/l for the main body of the lake. By the mid-1980s copper values had increased to as high as 41 ug/l near the Bell Mine with averages around 10 ug/l. However, by the early 1990s, when seepage control measures were initiated, values had dropped to averages of 4.0 to 5.8 ug/l, depending on sampling location.
In 2014, an effluent treatment plant was installed at the Bell Mine. The SalmonWild Conservation Trust report includes recent water quality analyses (2013-2019). Discharge from the Bell Mine treatment plant averages 4.0 ug/l with lake water in the vicinity of the discharge averaging 1.7 ug/l copper. However, surface flows from the Granisle Mine average as high as 174 ug/l. Presumably, these are being effectively diluted in Babine Lake to produce the lake water averages noted above.
Water quality for copper in Morrison Lake presently stands at about 1.0 ug/l, based on Pacific Booker’s background environmental assessment. Copper in the discharge from the Morrison Mine water treatment plant will be 7 ug/l, with dilution in Morrison Lake calculated to achieve a copper level of 1.9 ug/l. Based on the apparent effectiveness of reclamation measures invoked at the Babine Lake mines and the proposed treatment measures intended for the Morrison project, it is evident that the Morrison Mine will have no significant detrimental effects to the salmon population of either Morrison or Babine lakes. Terry Lake also commented that the Morrison Lake salmon population is ‘genetically distinct’. All salmon populations are genetically distinct, adapted as each is to seeking out the same watershed with each migration, a point emphasized by biologist Alexandra Morton in her recent book on her campaign against salmon farming.
Dr. Larry Dyke
North Vancouver
If you are interested in seeing the video Dr. Dyke refers to, here is the link to the Voice of BC interview at:
https://vimeo.com/50833337