For the last eight years, the Murray River project has been in care and maintenance as HD Mining has been working on finding funding for their proposed six-million tonne/year mine.
According to Jodi Shimkus, advisor for the company, the portal was sealed in 2015 after the bulk sample program was completed, and the existing decline has mostly flooded.
The company got an extension to their BC Environmental Assessment Certificate in 2020, which gave the company until 2025 to make a “substantial start” on construction of the mine.
What does that mean? According to the Government of BC, the term is not defined in the act, and determination is made on a case-by-case basis, though previous decisions do help in guiding the decision making process.
The main consideration is this: “has there been a significant investment of time, effort, and resources to physically develop one or more main project elements?”
In the case of HD, the plan is to construct the ventilation shaft over the next two years, which they believe will qualify as a substantial start.
But that is not the only activity that will be undertaken. “You will see several pre-construction activities over next year or two,” says Shimkus. “In 2022, we’ve already completed environmental surveys and studies for migratory birds in support of federal EA requirements. In 2023, we will be working on a technical report re gas drainage and methane management, preparing work for auxiliary decline and other pre-construction work, such as updates to management plans and construction management plans.”
Of course, with the auxiliary decline currently flooded, the company will need to drain it. Once that happens, they will start work on a system for getting workers into and out of the mine, as well as a system for hauling material out of the mine.
They also plan on continuing work on EA surveys, including a caribou study in 2023.
In 2024, HD plans on engaging with BC Hydro regarding getting power to the site, which will include construction of a substation.
The company was subject of intense scrutiny and controversy last decade, due to their plan to at least partially staff the mine with skilled Temporary Foreign Workers. The company was taken to court over the plan by a pair of unions, but the court ruled in favour of the company.
In 2018, the mine received its Mines Act Permit, which is valid for the next 25 years.
There is still no set date for when the mine will go into production. “It has such a significant front-end capital cost,” Shimkus said at the time. “It’s a big piece of work.”
The issue, said Shimkus, was financing. Just to get to the point they’re at now, the company has had to invest about $200-million dollars.
The total cost to complete phase 1 of the mine is another $300 million.
Over the last few years, the company has been talking to investors, even bringing them to the site to inspect the property.
The federal government issued their Environmental Assessment Certificate at the end of 2017, with 104 conditions, including provisions to consult with First Nations, building rock weirs on M20 and Mast Creek to protect fish habitat, and a unique cap on greenhouse gas emissions, limiting methane emissions to 500,000 tonnes of equivalent carbon dioxide per year, or about 15,000 tonnes of methane.
This is the first time a coal mine has had a carbon cap.
And, of course, the company is required, in consultation with First Nations, to mitigate the effects of the project on critical habitat for the Quintette Herd.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
