Above image: CTI Plus CEO Yulin Li was in Tumbler Ridge, answering questions about the project.
On October 17, CTI Plus Resources Ltd. hosted an open house in room 5 at the Community Centre to tell people about the Rocky Creek Mine, a proposed new open pit metallurgical coal mine in the Sukunka Valley.
The new mine would be about 47 km southwest of Chewtynd between the Sukunka and Burnt rivers west of Brule. The Project is in the Sukunka River watershed. The lower Burnt River flows west to east, approximately 3 km north of the mine site, before connecting with the Sukunka River, while Rocky Creek flows through the proposed mine site itself.
CTI has been investigating the area since last year, and is hoping to bring the mine on-stream by 2030. The area has seen little to no previous exploration. BP did some sampling between 1979 and 1985, and CTI Plus acquired the licences in 2019.
The project is estimated to have a production rate of 1.75 Mt of clean coal annually, and is expected to have enough coal to last 14 years. It would take about two years to build the mine, and construction is expected to begin in 2028.
According to the Initial Project Description document that is currently before the Environmental Assessment Office (EAO), “the global steel demand forecast continues to grow with billions of metric tons of steel required to meet future infrastructure, electrification, and renewable energy demands. Metallurgical coal is crucial in the steel production process.”
The proposal consists of 17 coal licences that are bisected by Rocky Creek. Rocky Creek divides the Project into the two unequal areas. The Northwest area would have six pits, which would take about 11 years to mine, while the Southeast block would have one pit, that would take about four years to mine. Most of the mine infrastructure would also be in the Northwest block.
Rail loadout would be in the Hasler Flats area, which would involve trucking the coal from the mine along existing roads (including the Hasler Flat Forest Service Road), a distance of about 64 km.
Conuma had planned on building their rail load out in the Hasler Flats area, but met with strong resistance from the local community.
The company has already begun to engage with First Nations and the meeting in Tumbler Ridge, as well as a meeting the day before in Chetwynd is part of the consultation process with the local communities. “CTI Plus is committed to conducting meaningful engagement with indigenous nations that are potentially affected by the Project, or who may have an interest in the Project,” they say in the report. “Engagement will align with indigenous nations’ specific processes and protocols, be built upon the International Association of Public Participation framework for public engagement, and consider direction provided by BC EAO and the Agency.”
In 2019, CTI Plus initiated engagement activities with indigenous nations in Treaty 8 whose territories overlapped with the project. “At the time of preparing [this document], Halfway River First Nation, Horse Lake First Nation, McLeod Lake Indian Band, Saulteau First Nations, and West Moberly First Nations have expressed interest in being engaged throughout the Environmental Assessment process. Other indigenous nations will continue to be informed of the Project and provided with opportunities to engage throughout the process. CTI Plus is committed to involving potentially affected indigenous nations to integrate their interests, concerns, and indigenous knowledge into the project design, mitigation measures, and the Environmental Assessment as per their preferences and protocols.”
The project overlaps several land-use tenures, including a tree farm licence, oil and gas right-of-way and tenures, a wind power investigative licence, four registered traplines, and three guide outfitter areas.
The public comment period for the project opened October 7 and will run until November 6.
For more info, visit ctiplusresources.com
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
