Takeover by foreign company would be ‘devastating’ to region and make it difficult to communicate, mayors say
Set in British Columbia‘s southeastern Kootenay region, the scenic towns of Sparwood and Elkford are where adrenaline junkies often go to hike while skiers and snowmobilers hit the fresh snow on the Canadian Rockies.
The surrounding Elk Valley area, often called Canada’s Serengeti, is filled with wildlife, wildflowers and, of course, the majestic snow-covered mountains. The valley also has a history of coal mining that stretches back for more than a century and is currently home to four steelmaking coal mines run by Teck Resources Ltd.
Those mines are why the roughly 7,000 people living in Sparwood and Elkford now find their futures directly tied to a battle between two large mining companies that have been trading punches for the past few weeks, a battle that will ultimately be decided some 3,000 kilometres away in Toronto’s financial district, which isn’t sitting well with the towns’ mayors.
Sparwood Mayor David Wilks said Glencore’s PLC‘s US$23.2-billion proposed takeover of Teck “would be devastating” because it would hurt the region’s image by connecting it to a company that’s heavily reliant on thermal coal, which is used to generate electricity, but is a major contributor of carbon emissions that pollute the environment.
For the rest of this article: https://financialpost.com/commodities/mining/bc-towns-lament-teck-connection-glencore-thermal-coal