The Tahltan First Nation and
Fortune Minerals Ltd. (
TSX: T.FT,
Stock Forum) are at odds over plans to build an open-pit coal mine, which the company says could bring $10 billion in revenue, in the Sacred Headwaters of Northern British Columbia.
Tahtlan elders are protesting at the Fortune site by, among other things, holding drum circles near Fortune’s field camp twice a day.
When the project was first announced in 2005, local Tahtlan were split about the potential benefit of the mine, with 15 elders arrested during a blockade of the site. The Tahtlan have since united in opposition to the company plans.
In July, at the Band’s annual general meeting, the Tahtlan “made a resolution that they wanted to see the Sacred Headwaters protected,” said Annita McPhee, President of the Tahltan Central Council. “Last week our elders and our members gave Fortune Minerals an eviction notice and they asked them to leave the site and to stop their exploration activity.”
On August 17, after the eviction notice was served, Fortune representatives met with the Tahltan Central Council, and agreed to change helicopter routes that were alleged to have been disturbing traditional hunting grounds.
McPhee says the helicopter route changes did not resolve the situation, and that the Band intends to fight to protect the area.
“This project isn’t about economics for us, because we have lots of economic development in our territory,” said McPhee. “For Fortune, they have their investors and their shareholders, for us it’s our children.”
The company is moving forward with plans for an environmental assessment.
“I think the best opportunity there is, is open dialogue with any of the protestors or others that are interested in the project,” said Troy Nazarewicz, Fortune’s Investor Relations Manager. “So the best venue for that is the environmental assessment process because you’re working with facts and scientific data and everything is documented.”
The mine in question, the Arctos Anthracite project, located 330 kilometres northeast of the Port of Prince Rupert, is an international collaboration between Fortune (80%) and POSCAN (20%), the Canadian subsidiary of South Korea’s POSCO, one of the world’s largest steel producers.
On July 2, the Arctos Anthracite Joint Venture (AAJV) summer field program commenced in support of the environmental assessment (EA) to permit the mine, wash plant and railway extension. A 30-person field camp was opened at the site to support the collection of environmental baseline information for the EA process.
According to Fortune, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Office recently granted substitution of the Arctos EA to B.C., enabling provincial and federal jurisdictions to work closely together to incorporate all aspects of environmental safeguards and Aboriginal consultation under a ‘one project, one assessment’ approach.
According to Nazarewicz the proposed mine will have no impact on the Nass River. The mine is also far away from the closet point to the Skeena River’s watershed, only the proposed railway extension along the existing rail bed is within the Skeena River’s watershed.
The Arctos mine is within the Stikine watershed, “however the rail bed and the mine is very far from the river itself, approximately 30 kilometres from the headwaters,” said Nazarewicz. “Extensive work is being done in relation to the mine’s water quality to design a facility that poses no harm to the water.”
The railway right-of-way provides a simple brownfield access corridor to the Canadian National Railway at Minaret, and from there, to the Ridley Coal Terminal in Prince Rupert for export of metallurgical coal products to overseas steel manufacturers and metal processors.
To date Fortune has invested $100 million in the proposed project, which executives say has the potential for $10 billion in revenue and $900 million in Provincial and Federal taxes after a 25-year mine life.
Fortune is a diversified resource company with several mineral deposits and a number of exploration projects, all located in Canada.
On Friday, Fortune was up 1.4% and was trading at $0.355 a share. The company had a market cap of $53.4 million, based on 150.5 million shares outstanding.
The protest continues.