With an estimated two billion tonnes of coal, the 7,773 ha Wapiti Coalfield is one of the largest in the country and home to some of the best quality coal around.
At least, that’s what Canadian Dehua International (CDI) would tell you. CDI is the company that owned the coal licences for the Wapiti, as well as a drilling company, called Canadian Dehua Drilling Ltd., partial ownership of HD Mining (40 percent), Canadian Kailuan Dehua Mines Co, and partial ownership of both the Vancouver Island Iron Ore Corporation and a property on Vancouver named Iron Ross, in an area that was partially mined back in the 1960s.
They also had licences in what is called the Bullmoose Coal Property, east of the now-defunct Bullmoose Mine. This property has at least six coal seams, with some of them up to 4.8 metres wide.
But, despite having claims to some of the biggest and best coal reserves in the northeast, CDI found itself in financial trouble back in 2022, when a company called China Shougang International Trade & Engineering Corporation, filed a petition for a bankruptcy order against CDI. That was in April of that year. In June, CDI obtained a stay of proceedings and was able to line up some funding to keep them from going bankrupt, with the intention of finding an investor or to sell off part of the company.
For the last few years, the company has been operating under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA), which allows them to restructure in the hopes of avoiding bankruptcy.
CDI was originally formed in 2004, and during the late aughts and early 2010s was very active in the area exploring in the Bullmoose and Wapiti areas, where they acquired a property certificate back in 2012.
But in September of 2023, West Moberly First Nations discovered that the properties were for sale, and, according to official court documents, “decided to explore the possibility of acquiring the coal assets and to do so without disclosing the fact that they were the buyer.”
They did this anonymously, as they were worried about speculation about what they intended to do with the licence, so they enlisted Aref Amanat, a lawyer with TaneMahuta Capital.
Their original bid, submitted in July of last year, was $400,000, but after over a year of negotiation, the deal closed earlier this year with West Moberly paying $2.2 million for both Wapiti and Bullmoose.
According to an affidavit submitted to the court, Chief Roland Wilson explained the rationale for not disclosing West Moberly’s role. “He explained that the funding is from a Canadian source under an agreement that requires West Moberly to keep it confidential,” says the court documents, stating that West Moberly’s broad objective of stewardship of the lands and conservation involves a balance between parts of the lands preserved for wildlife and other parts of the lands where development may be acceptable to West Moberly.
One of the co-owners of CDI— Qu Bo Liu, who owns 50 percent of the company, alongside her husband, who owns the other 50 percent—was also bidding on the assets, but she was outbid by $550,000.
But on January 7 of this year, West Moberly’s offer was accepted by FTI Consulting, a business management organization operating as the CCAA Monitor for Dehua. The deal gets West Moberly nine coal licences in the Bullmoose area, and an additional five in the Wapiti area.
What’s going to happen with the properties? West Moberly isn’t saying at this time, but in the court documents, Wilson says: “With respect to the issue of Caribou protection, West Moberly was originally focused on Caribou protection. However, like many governing Nations it now sees value in the coal resource and wants to leave it open to try and strike a balance between economic development and wildlife preservation.”
Above photo: Boxes of core sample on the Wapiti property, from the FTI Sales document.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
