Castanet

erinmore3775 wrote:Fortunately, it was not just the "environmentalist nuts" or the Indigenous Nations that lived near the proposed Ajax mine that opposed the granting of the permit. "...The City of Kamloops biggest concern was the potential hazards of a tailings pond. The city’s own consultant addressed those concerns somewhat, leaving dust from the mine’s operations as the biggest concern for Kamloops residents.
"The mine would be located just two kilometres from a residential area. An EAO report cited air quality concerns as one of the determining factors for rejection the project. http://www.kamloopsthisweek.com/kamloops-council-opposes-proposed-ajax-mine/

The major concern was the tailings pond. Now if KGHM International Ltd., a Polish company, and B.C.’s Abacus Mining & Exploration Corp., had only proposed a solidification process for the management of the mine tailings, it is my opinion that the mine would have been approved. The Mount Polley disaster certainly put tailing ponds, controlled by earthen dams, in a new perspective. The fact that the mine and its pond would be located so close to urban development was a critical factor in its rejection.

The jobs could have been saved and the companies involved bottom lines improved if they had only decided that newer technology for tailings and dust control had been proposed.

erinmore3775 wrote:Fortunately, it was not just the "environmentalist nuts" or the Indigenous Nations that lived near the proposed Ajax mine that opposed the granting of the permit. "...The City of Kamloops biggest concern was the potential hazards of a tailings pond. The city’s own consultant addressed those concerns somewhat, leaving dust from the mine’s operations as the biggest concern for Kamloops residents.
"The mine would be located just two kilometres from a residential area. An EAO report cited air quality concerns as one of the determining factors for rejection the project. http://www.kamloopsthisweek.com/kamloops-council-opposes-proposed-ajax-mine/

The major concern was the tailings pond. Now if KGHM International Ltd., a Polish company, and B.C.’s Abacus Mining & Exploration Corp., had only proposed a solidification process for the management of the mine tailings, it is my opinion that the mine would have been approved. The Mount Polley disaster certainly put tailing ponds, controlled by earthen dams, in a new perspective. The fact that the mine and its pond would be located so close to urban development was a critical factor in its rejection.

The jobs could have been saved and the companies involved bottom lines improved if they had only decided that newer technology for tailings and dust control had been proposed.

Jflem1983 wrote:[
Thats actually a good point. Why cant they make cement out of the tailings and get rid of it that way. Put even more people to work

Queen K wrote:Ultimately, this version of the Ajax mine got rejected.

I suspect there will be a new, improved, cleaned up proposal in 2018 or even 2019.

erinmore3775 wrote:https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11595-012-0486-3

http://arizona.openrepository.com/arizona/handle/10150/268596

" Why cant they make cement out of the tailings and get rid of it that way. Put even more people to work...

The above articles outline that process. While it would not necessarily be appropriate in the New Prosperity case it may have been appropriate in the Ajax Mine proposal. There are other solidification processes available to mining companies, however, they are more expensive than the traditional tailings pond.

alanjh595 wrote:The "natives" were not the predominate factor in this decision. The Township has been fighting longer and harder than the "come lately natives". it was the White people that put the kibosh on this project, not the natives.

UhHuhYeahSure wrote:

Cactusflower wrote:Mining companies have a sordid history in B.C. since 2001. In just one example, Imperial Metals knew they could get away with bypassing environmental assessments by slipping thousands of dollars into the BC Liberal war chest. They were even allowed to re-open the Mt. Polley mine operation without ever taking any responsibility for the environmentally disastrous results of their tailings pond breach. Guess who's paying for that? The BC taxpayers, that's who.

Now Ajax is surprised that the NDP have rejected another mining disaster in the making? Well, boo hoo!

Cactusflower... Do you even know what is mine tailings? A soup of "toxic sludge" as Global TV continued to report months after the spill? Full of poisons that killed fish and birds and antelope in every direction? A scourge that will last for decades and result in 3 eyed frogs for centuries?

Educate yourself. Mine tailings is crushed and pulverized rock. At Mt Poly, it's quartz and feldspar and biotite. It's sand! The minerals that could be considered toxic have been taken out. That's what mines do. Take minerals out of rock and leave...sand. The water quality in the tailings is better than many communities drinking water.

The cost incurred in "cleaning up" the mud was nothing more than government imposed protocol in placating eco-hysteria ignorance and a sense of tidy English Garden wilderness mentality.

Mt Polly was a mud flow...nothing more, nothing less. It's powdered rock. But just because it came from a mine (BTW, that employed over 300 people at wages most people reading this would drool over), it's evil, wicked and nasty. If it had come down a hillside all by itself, well, that's just nature.

And it's only the conservative nature of the mining industry that stops them from taking the media to court to sue their axes off for reporting pure fabricated drama and ignoring the science and the truth.

Mining in BC is sooooo over regulated based on bleatings of the PERCEPTIONS of an ill guided and ignorant population. It takes on average 15 years from the date of discovery to the first metal produced to get a mine into production. All of that time is spent satisfying truckloads of ecological, social and native regulations.

Well...actually it did take 15 years. Serious mining companies have left the province and gone to countries that welcome the technology, ecological research, workplace safety mentality, taxation and training and income it provides their people.

YeahYeahSureSure...go ahead and spew the "pillage and plunder" ignorant rhetoric of investing hundreds of millions of dollars in other countries. If you really believe that, at least just keep buying all the metal products now provided from those countries to keep the mining companies happy.

In the meantime, BC is off to a rosy future of growing and smoking legal pot and returning land to a native population that thinks it can live in the past.