One of the biggest issues facing Conuma’s re-start of Quintette is that a bunch of trails in the Boulder Garden and Shipyard-Titanic areas encroach on the permitted mining areas. Currently, the mine is operating the Little Windy pit, but when they re-open the Window and Big Windy pits, this has made people who recreate in the region nervous.
It also means that the industrial traffic which has been missing on the haul road into the mine (which has been opened to public access the last number of years), will be returning.
Sullivan says the people who work at the mine are also people who play in the backcountry, so the mine is doing all it can to not impact recreation in the area. “Conuma recognizes that we have to operate in the community in a way that allows people to continue to enjoy the benefits of living in Tumbler Ridge, and the Boulder Gardens and Shipyard-Titanic trails are all important parts of that, as is the Geopark. We have and will go to great lengths to protect the access to these areas. If you look at the map of where the mine boundary is for Quintette on Mount Babcock, there is a very small piece of trail that overlaps our mine boundary. We intend to allow this to remain open.”
The biggest issue, he says, will be blasting. “The mining activities will be going on essentially on the other side of Mount Babcock, so it is incumbent on Conuma to alert the public, the users of the outdoor recreation areas.”
He says when they are blasting, they will post notice that there will be blasts happening, and we have to clear the area to make sure people are at a safe distance and protect them from the possibility of a rock material that typically accompanies a blast.”
He says these times will hopefully be few and far between. “We have professional engineers who are dedicating themselves to making sure that the use and enjoyment of those areas will not be interrupted,” he says.
The plan is to build a new road. While it will reduce the traffic on the Core Lodge Road, it won’t totally eliminate it. “When PRC was operating, they had 40 ton trucks going the entire length of the Core Lodge Road, all the way down to and across the Murray Forest Service Road, on to rail load out. Our plan is to split the existing Core Lodge Road into two segments. One will be for the continued use of the motoring public. Then we will have to split the road and have off road vehicles transporting coal to what will ultimately be a transfer point. So the intent is to widen the existing Upper Core Lodge to support mine vehicle travel. From the gate to the mine, to where that cutover would be, it’s about five kilometers of road. We don’t have those details confirmed yet, but that’s something that we’re committed to, working with the groups represented by the Tumbler Ridge Outdoor Recreation Association on how do we ensure that people can be safe.”
He says he knows there are people who are concerned about the quality of life they have in town. “I know not everybody works in the mines, or wants to work in the mines. And there are plenty of people who moved to Tumbler Ridge for other reasons, who don’t want to see anything change in their quality of life. We are dedicated to making sure that that balance between industrial activity and outdoor use and enjoyment remains. Our employees are the some of the prime users of the outdoor. So we want to be very supportive.”
Indeed, he says, the beauty and recreational opportunities are one of the things that draw people to come and work at the mine. “We would be shooting our own toes off if we got that balance wrong.”
Rather than speculating, Sullivan says he would rather see people call the company and address the issues with them directly. “We would love to continue to support outdoor events like the Emperor’s Challenge. We’ve been very supportive of that in the past and we will continue to work with the Wolverine Nordic and Mountain Society as long as they want to continue to run the run the event. That’s certainly up to them, but we would continue to make that route—or ones like it—available for that use. Again, it’s our employees who are enjoying that as much as everyone else in town.”
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
