Canadian Media Resource Articles – Page 635

What you need to know about tailings ponds – by Adrian Lee (MACLEAN’S Magazine – August 6, 2014)

August 6, 2014

http://www.macleans.ca/

Understanding the tailings ponds breach at Mount Polley near Likely, B.C., which has emptied mine waste into waterways

On Monday, an Imperial Metals tailings pond in B.C. breached its embankment, spilling contaminated water and waste material into the surrounding waterways and spurring a state of emergency in the area. It’s raised the ire of First Nations groups, who say the company ignored a report that the growth of the pond was unsustainable.

It’s angered environmental groups, furious at the suggestion that water with arsenic and mercury was released into the lakes. But what exactly are tailings ponds? Does the industry have an alternative? We talked to Scott Dunbar, the head of the University of British Columbia’s school of mining engineering, to explain the issues at play and the institutional attitudes that need to change so this doesn’t happen again.

Q: So what is a tailings pond, and how does it work?

When you take the rock out of the ground, you grind it up to particles about the size of sand and silt, then you run it through what they call a concentration plant and it separates the minerals of interest from the waste. The waste becomes tailings, and it gets mixed up with water, and it’s pumped out into this pond. The purpose of this pond, with an embankment around it, is to retain the tailings and allow them to drain as much as possible. It’s basically sand-sized particles, but there’s an awful lot of it that’s produced relative to the minerals that generate all that cash. This waste that has to be dealt with. It’s mostly silicates. If the filtering is done well, which it usually is, there would be very few metallics.

Tailings ponds for mining and oilsands waste: FAQs (CBC News – August 05, 2014)

August 6, 2014

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology

What’s in them, what makes them risky and how they’re regulated

The breach of a tailings pond at the Mount Polley copper and gold mine in B.C. has released 10 billion litres of mining wastewater into local waterways in early August. Local residents have been banned from using the water from the Quesnel and Cariboo river systems.

Here are the answers to some questions you might have about tailings ponds.

What are tailings?

Tailings are the byproducts left over from mining and extracting resources, such as extracting bitumen from the oilsands or minerals such as copper or gold from ores. Tailings include:

Finely ground rock particles – ranging from sand-sized to silt-sized.
Chemicals used to extract the valuable mineral or oil.
Water.

AUDIO: Ring of Fire ‘soap opera’ continues with recent court ruling (CBC News – August 05, 2014)

August 6, 2014

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury

A mining industry observer says a recent court ruling will do nothing to spur development in the Ring of Fire. A divisional court ruled last week that Cliffs Natural Resources may apply to the province to build a road over KWG Resources’ land. KWG had been withholding its consent.

Cliffs has said it wants to build a road to transport ore from the Ring of Fire in the Northwest. In an interview last week, Cliffs vice-president Bill Boor said the decision was reason for optimism for Sudburians.

The company has floated the idea of a chromite smelter in Capreol. But the head of the Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Services Association said Cliffs still has to satisfy the minister, negotiate with Aboriginal groups and complete environmental assessments.

“If it’s a good step, I’m not sure for whom,” Dick Destefano said. “But it seems to open up another avenue for discussion — which means another delay and another discussion, and another study.”

He noted there are so many variables that the opportunities around the project could easily vanish. “This is like the Wizard of Oz for me,” Dick Destefano said.

Mount Polley Mine tailings water ‘very close’ to drinking quality, company says – by Rhiannon Coppin and Bal Brach (CBC British Columbia – August 5, 2014)

August 6, 2014

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia

Imperial Metals president Brian Kynoch says he would drink water from tailings pond that leaked into rivers

Imperial Metals president Brian Kynoch says the company accepts full responsibility for the breach that caused a massive failure at the Mount Polley Mine in central B.C. on Monday and sent billions of litres of wastewater into river systems.

“I apologize for what happened,” Kynoch said at a news conference plagued with technical problems in Likely, B.C., on Tuesday afternoon. “If you asked me two weeks ago if this could have happened, I would have said it couldn’t.”

Wastewater and tailings sediment from Imperial Metals’s Mount Polley copper and gold mine near Likely has contaminated several lakes, creeks and rivers in the Cariboo region, causing officials to evacuate local campgrounds and enact a number of water-use and drinking water bans.

Mt Polley Tailings Failure: Lies versus the Truth – by Jack Caldwell (I Think Mining.com – August 6, 2014)

August 12, 2014August 6, 2014

http://ithinkmining.com/

Jack Caldwell, P.E. has a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering, an M.Sc. (Eng.) in Geotechnical Engineering and a post-graduate law degree. He has over 35 years engineering experience on mining, civil, geotechnical and site remediation projects. He has worked on numerous projects throughout southern Africa, Europe, Canada and the United States.

Today we have read all we can find on the failure of the Mt Polley tailings facility. It is all distressing. And mostly misleading. Here are a few clear thoughts on the topic.

The videos show that the tailings and water are still pouring out of the failed facility. Problem number one is how do you stop this flow. I do not know how I would stop the flow and nobody seems concerned to stop the flow. But more tailings and contaminated water are escaping as we write. If it rains, even more will be washed out. Demand number one is an answer as to how continued tailings flow will be stopped.

I can accept that the water and all it nasty constituents will be diluted by the rivers and lakes into which the water is flowing. But what of the solids? They are in the river, on the banks, and now in the lake. Will it ever be possible to clean this up, or will these tailings have to be allowed to wash by rain into the lake to join the bottom sediments? Maybe we need to build an emergency dam up-river of the lake to catch the solids.

Imperial Metals is saying the area affected is small by comparison with the area of the tailings facility. This is true, but irrelevant. Until they stop outflow, the threat of all the tailings to the environment remains.

Mt Polley Mine Tailings Failure – by Jack Caldwell (I Think Mining.com – August 5, 2014)

August 6, 2014

http://ithinkmining.com/

It is always a very sad day when a major tailings facility failure occurs. As one commenter noted to me: “Whatever the facts, the failure casts a poor light on the industry, and makes all of our jobs more difficult in the future.”

Today we write about the failure of the Mt Polley tailings facility right here in British Columbia. I write only on the basis of the information readily available on the web. I have no other source of knowledge of this facility.

My first impression is that this is in a direct line of failures from Bafokeng, through Merriespruit, to now. Nothing has changed, this failure looks just like the failed Bafokeng dam looked when I went out to see it the week after it failed way back in the earlier 1970s.

We still cannot agree if the cause of the Bafokeng failure was overtopping of the crest of the perimeter embankment by too much water in the dam, piping of water through a sandy layer in the embankment, or slope instability via sliding of soft foundation clays.

Spilled waste water at Mount Polley mine had failed guidelines for human, aquatic health – by Gordon Hoekstra and Tara Carman (Vancouver Sun – August 5, 2014)

August 6, 2014

http://www.vancouversun.com/index.html

Possible contamination after tailings pond for Imperial Metals’ mine breached, sending millions of cubic meters of waste into waterways southeast of Quesnel

The millions of cubic metres of water that poured out of Mount Polley mine when the dam collapsed had failed provincial water quality guidelines for human and aquatic health in the past, according to the B.C. environment ministry.

Data sent to the ministry by Mount Polley as recently as Monday showed that selenium concentration exceeded drinking water guidelines by a factor of 2.8 times.

There have also been drinking water exceedances of sulphate over the last few years, according to information supplied to The Vancouver Sun by environment ministry spokesman Dave Crebo.

Aquatic water guidelines have also been exceeded in the past for nitrate, cadmium, copper and iron.

The release of 10 million cubic metres of water — enough to fill BC Place more than four times — is also potentially contaminated with toxic metals such as arsenic and mercury, a concern for hundreds of area residents’ water supply and important salmon habitat.

B.C. mine had issues with rising waste water ahead of breach, consultant says (The Canadian Press/Globe and Mail – August 05, 2014)

August 6, 2014August 5, 2014

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Quesnel, B.C. — A tailings pond that breached Monday, releasing a slurry of contaminated water and mine waste into several central British Columbia waterways, had been growing at an unsustainable rate, an environmental consultant says.

Brian Olding, who operates Brian Olding and Associates Ltd., said Imperial Metals Corp. (TSX: III) had been working on fixing the problem with waste water from the mine. Olding said he was hired by the company as well as the Williams Lake and Soda Creek First Nations to review the company’s plans to treat and release water as part of the province’s effluent release permitting process.

“More water was coming in over the year than they could deal with,” Olding said. “They just kept building the walls up higher and higher every year and it got to the point where that was untenable.”

He said the firm was seeking a permit to treat and release some of the water to keep the size of the pond in check at its Mount Polley Mine, an open-pit gold and copper mine about 140 kilometres southeast of Quesnel.

The earthen dam at one end of the four-kilometre-long pond breached early Monday morning, sending a 45-metre-wide wall of water and mining debris into local creeks and lakes.

Quebec Innu upset with IOC’s deal with Labrador Innu (St. John’s Telegram – August 2, 2014)

August 5, 2014

http://www.thetelegram.com/

First Nations groups say they have claim to territory where the company is conducting mining operations

Two Innu First Nations groups in Quebec are claiming rights over lands in Labrador where the Iron Ore Company of Canada (IOC) has already concluded an agreement with Labrador’s Innu Nation.

The Uashat mak Mani-utenam and Matimekush-Lac John Innu First Nations in Quebec are objecting to IOC’s claims that the company has settled aboriginal issues regarding IOC’s projects on an area they say is their traditional territory. The groups are calling on the IOC to come to an agreement with them as well.

The request comes shortly after IOC signed an agreement with the Labrador Innu Nation, which the groups consider, “a curious development,” considering the fact their groups have rights to the area.

“We have never ceded nor otherwise lost our rights to our traditional territory, our Nitassinan, which territory we have possessed, occupied and administered since time immemorial,” Matimekush-Lac John Chief Réal Mckenzie stated in a news release issued Friday.

“Governments and the mining industry allow other aboriginal groups with no legitimate claim to our territory to encroach on our lands at our expense. We can no longer tolerate such an attitude which aims to capture our resources and the benefits which derive from them.”

Manitoba looks to jump into potash industry, develop mine (CBC News Manitoba – July 23, 2014)

August 5, 2014

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba

The Manitoba government is hoping to develop a significant potash deposit in the western part of the province near Russell, Man. Chris Radford, Mayor of Russell, said having the potash industry present would be great for his community.

“Well this would be fantastic news for our area,” said Radford. “It’s something that obviously we’ve been looking forward to for a long time. There have been a lot of times that they have talked about this in the past and we certainly hope that this time things will be able to move forward.”

The province-owned Manitoba Potash Corporation has acquired the rights to a vast deposit of the mineral, used as a key ingredient in fertilizer. It has bundled together the mineral rights to much of the potash in the province.

The next step will be to ask major players in the industry to do a feasibility study on developing a mine, said Manitoba’s Minister of Mineral Resources Dave Chomiak

“We’ve gone to the market and asked people to look at it and see if they are interested in doing a feasibility, which if proved positive, would lead to a potash development,” he said.

Chomiak said It could take up to a decade to develop a potash mine, but it could generate as many as 600 jobs and provide hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties for the province.

Cliffs’ boardroom shake-up presents buying opportunities for Canadian miners – by Peter Koven (National Post -August 5, 2014)

August 5, 2014

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

A boardroom shake-up at Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. has raised the likelihood that its international assets will hit the market, creating some intriguing buying opportunities for Canadian miners in their own backyard.

These assets include a large but troubled iron ore mine in Quebec, and a huge chromite deposit in Northern Ontario’s “Ring of Fire” that one company has already expressed interest in buying.

Cleveland-based Cliffs has been engaged in a vicious proxy war with hedge fund Casablanca Capital LP for the past six months. That battle ended in an apparently decisive victory for Casablanca last week, as the New York-based activist fund said it claimed six of the 11 seats on Cliffs’ board. Cliffs has not yet confirmed the final numbers.

Casablanca has been very open about its plans for Cliffs: It wants the company to focus on its core U.S. iron ore operations and look at divesting everything else, including assets in Canada and Australia.

The fund had plenty of shareholder support for this strategy, because Cliffs’ recent international forays have simply not worked out. In Canada, the company spent a staggering $4.9-billion in cash to buy the Bloom Lake iron ore mine in the 2011 takeover of Consolidated Thompson Iron Mines Ltd.

Residents calling it an environmental disaster: tailings pond breach at Mount Polley Mine near Likely, BC – by Paula Baker, Marlisse Silver Sweeney and Justin McElroy (Global News – August 4, 2014)

August 6, 2014August 5, 2014

http://globalnews.ca/toronto/

Local residents are calling it an environmental disaster. A breach of the tailings pond on Mount Polley Mine sent five million cubic metres of toxic waste into Hazeltine Creek, Quesnel Lake and Polley Lake, with fears it could spread far and wide in the coming days.

Residents in the area, along with visitors to waterways near the Mount Polley Mine close to Likely, B.C., have been issued a complete water ban. Affecting close to 300 homes, it extends to the entire Quesnel and Cariboo River systems up to the Fraser River, including Quesnel Lake, Cariboo Creek, Hazeltine Creek and Polley Lake.

People in Quesnel are also being asked to avoid using water from the Quesnel River, and late in the day the Cariboo Regional District extended the water advisory right to the Fraser River – although they said that was a precautionary measure.

A sunny Ontario experiment gone wrong – by Konrad Yakabuski (Globe and Mail – August 4, 2014)

August 5, 2014

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

That glare coming off selected southern Ontario farmlands these days is not the result of some secret state experiment with atomic vegetables. No, it’s the product of another form of state-sanctioned mad science that is costing Ontarians dearly without doing diddly to improve the environment.

After Germany and California, Ontario is “enjoying” its day in the sun as a global hot spot for solar power. Photovoltaic panels are carpeting fertile and fallow farmlands at a furious rate this summer as solar power promoters rush to complete projects before the subsidy gusher slows.

By the end of 2015, more than 2,000 megawatts of solar power will be connected to the Ontario grid as developers take advantage of the province’s feed-in-tariff, guaranteeing them a heady two-decade return on their investment, courtesy of the weary Ontario electricity consumer.

The newly re-elected Liberal government scaled down the FIT program last year, but not before a small group of savvy operators hit the sweet spot by locking into its risk-free cash flow. One 10MW solar farm under construction in eastern Ontario’s cottage country will get 44 cents for every kilowatt-hour of electricity it produces over 20 years.

Compare that to the average 8.55 cents per kWh that Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator says it cost to produce power in the province in 2013.

B.C. approves $5.3-billion copper-gold KSM mine – by James Keller (Globe and Mail – July 30, 2014)

July 31, 2014

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

VANCOUVER — The Canadian Press – The British Columbia government has granted environmental approval for a proposed $5.3-billion mine in the province’s north, which would tap into one of the largest gold and copper deposits in the world and has already received support from local First Nations.

The provincial environment and mines ministers issued an environmental assessment certificate Wednesday to Seabridge Gold Inc. for the company’s KSM project, also known as Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell.

Seabridge has applied to open the project more than 900 kilometres northwest of Vancouver, where the company says it would be able to mine 38.2 million ounces of gold and almost 5 billion kilograms of copper – enough to produce 130,000 tonnes of ore per day for up to 52 years.

The company says the project would create 1,800 jobs during construction and more than 1,000 permanent jobs if it gets up and running, though Seabridge also notes it still must find a partner to fund and actually build the mine.

B.C. Mines Minister Bill Bennett said the project would be a boon to the province’s economy and First Nations in the region.

Cliffs and Casablanca – the start of a beautiful friendship? – by Northern Miner Editorial (July 30, 2014)

July 31, 2014

The Northern Miner, first published in 1915, during the Cobalt Silver Rush, is considered Canada’s leading authority on the mining industry.

It’s the biggest shareholder revolt of the current downturn in mining, but as we go to press it looks like Casablanca Capital has succeeded fulsomely in its long-shot bid to swamp the 11-member board of Cliffs Natural Resources with six of its own nominees.

Cleveland-based Cliffs is a major producer of iron ore and metallurgical coal worldwide, but its share price has suffered in the past three years owing to a combination of low iron ore and coal prices, and overexpansions into such ill-fated projects as its chromite project in Ontario’s Ring of Fire region.

Earlier this year, Cliffs idled its high-cost Wabush iron ore mine in Labrador and suspended an expansion of its Bloom Lake iron ore mine in Quebec, and is now set to idle its Pinnacle coal mine in West Virginia for more than six months starting in late August.

In the lead-up to the vote, Cliffs woes showed in its second-quarter net loss of US$2 million on revenues of US$1 billion. That compares with net earnings of US$133.1 million, or US82¢ per share, on revenues of $1.4 billion in the same quarter of 2013.

Based in New York and founded in 2010 by Donald G. Drapkin and Douglas Taylor, Casablanca Capital describes itself as an “event-driven and activist investment manager.”