Wells residents say they are already experiencing negative impacts just days after Osisko Development received an Environmental Assessment Certificate for the Cariboo Gold Project.
Dave Jorgenson, a Director with the Friends of Responsible Economic Development in Wells, says the company has started up an exhaust fan on a mountain overlooking the town.
“The issue here is this exhaust fan already illustrating the problems of putting the mine in a residential area, because as I am standing here talking to you it’s just humming away in the background. And it goes all day and it goes all night.”
Jorgenson says the mine isn’t allowed to do this.
“I have sent a letter to the mining company and to their feedback office, and to the District of Wells requesting that the mine comply with our municipal bylaw which prohibits this activity through the evenings. We have a noise bylaw that says from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. you cannot do what Osisko is doing.”
Jorgenson says if the mining permits were all approved, this fan would be one of 6 ventilators established in an arc on the hillsides above the community. He says he has notified the Environmental Assessment Office and Northern Health about their concerns.
Jorgenson says before they are branded as people who just want to reject any mine, he says they have come up with a plan B.
“This mining company wants to build this entire project next to our houses and our businesses, but they have a disturbed site at Bonanza Ledge, it’s called a brownfield site, It’s twice the size of the area in Wells that they want to disrupt. There is actually a ventilator fan running at that location right now that no one in Wells can hear. It’s a perfect location for the mine. It’s the right size, they’re using it for other purposes during the mining activity. It’s been operating for 13 years already and there is an industrial road that leads to it.”
Jorgenson says they just need the mine to understand that that is the acceptable solution and would be a win-win for everybody.
“That way the town will get a mine, the mine will get miners, the mining company will get, their stockholders will make money. The economics that we have developed over the last 60 years that are built around tourism will be allowed to thrive while we are able to diversify and include mining in our economy.”
He says the Bonanza Ledge mine site is also effectively on the same ore body.
“They’re tunneling underground so every tunnel, including this one that is being built at the moment that’s obnoxious, these tunnels could rise at or near Bonanza Ledge so they could still mine exactly the same ore body. It would cost them more, but this project stands to earn at a minimum 4 billion dollars and we calculated that the increase in cost is insignificant, to us anyways.”
Jorgenson says there is still time to stop plan A and go to plan B.
“Absolutely. The environmental assessment ticket is really just an approval to apply for permits. So now they have to go to the Ministry of Mines, next month there’s going to be a long, arduous process that will also include public review. They have to get permission from our community to rezone areas of our community, they have to get permission from the Ministry of Mines to do whatever it is that they specifically will do. Basically, if you think that the environmental certificate is approval in concept, now they need approval of the people.”
Jorgenson says this is where this project, unfortunately, will fall down unless Osisko comes to the table with our community on how to come up with a solution,
