Hollinger open pit taking shape – by Len Gillis (Timmins Daily Press – April 4, 2015)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – Goldcorp has asked for, and has received permission, from Timmins city hall to extend the deadline for the Subsequent Land Use Plan — that’s the land reclamation plan on what will be created to replace the Hollinger open pit, once the mining has ended. City council recently approved the request, to allow Goldcorp Porcupine Gold Mines (PGM) push the deadline back from March 31, 2015 to Dec. 31, 2015.

This also means that the deadline for the final plan is being pushed back to the end of 2017. This is the second time the company has asked for an extension. Originally, the plan was to have been submitted by Nov. 11, 2014. Last fall, Goldcorp requested the first deadline extension to have a plan submitted March 31, 2015.

PGM was back at the council table just a couple of weeks ago to explain that things were not going along as quickly as anticipated. PGM general mines manager Brendan Zuidema told council the company has faced some delays and challenges.

“We have experienced several unexpected delays since signing the original agreement on Nov. 12, 2012, along with many other operational challenges caused by the worst weather we have experienced in many years,” said Zuidema. “Last year and this year, it has been pretty tough in the pit.

“We have also experienced some issues with the landscape architect regarding design, detailed costing and accessibility requirements.

“So we are in the process of retaining a project manager to manage this thing. We thought it was really the right thing to do, get somebody in there that can look at this full time and make sure we’re doing this right.

“We are requesting a further extension for the presentation of the subsequent land use to the city, to the end of this year, to Dec. 31st,” he said. “The big reason we’re doing this is we want to make sure it is done right and that we’re not just meeting a deadline.”

For the rest of this article, click here: http://www.timminspress.com/2015/04/03/hollinger-open-pit-taking-shape