Planned B.C. gold mine near Quesnel passes environmental assessment

Plans for a gold mine near Wells, in B.C.'s Cariboo region, took a significant step forward with the granting of an environmental assessment certificate.

Environment Minister George Heyman and Mines Minister Josie Osborne said in a statement Tuesday that B.C. has given approval for Osisko Development Corp. to build and operate the underground Cariboo Gold mine, east of Quesnel, provided the project receives all its required permits.

The certificate comes with 22 conditions, including establishing a new drinking water supply for Wells, minimizing impacts to the Barkerville woodland caribou herd, noise requirements and hiring 75 per cent of workers from the region, if possible.

The ministers say the benefits of the project outweigh the costs and that the conditions on the certificate give them the "confidence to conclude that Cariboo Gold will be carried out such that no significant adverse effects are likely to occur."

When completed, the mine is expected to produce about 25 million tonnes of ore over 16 years and employ 500 workers during its operation and up to 300 during construction. Construction costs alone are expected to contribute an estimated $588 million to the economy over four years, and operations about $466 million. 

The mine is the first to be assessed from start to finish under the province's 2018 Environmental Assessment Act, which created a new process that includes more participation from First Nations.

In a document laying out their reasons for making the decision, the ministers say Lhtako Dene Nation and Williams Lake First Nation provided notices of consent, and Xat?ull First Nation said they do not oppose the project but consider consent an "ongoing process."

Residents divided over proposed mine

Wells residents have been divided over plans for the large mine in their community.

A 200-person work camp will be built at the project site, which is about the current size of the community of Wells.

Particularly divisive has been Osisko Development's plan to build a 36-metre-high, 200-metre-long mining building at the southern entrance of the community, within municipal limits.

Longtime Wells resident, Dirk Van Stralen, who owns the local Sunset Theatre and is an elected councillor in Wells said he only opposes the mine's location at the community's edge.

"The majority of the town are in favour of the mine," he told CBC News. "Just not the design of this particular proposal, the equivalent of four Costcos stacked inside the town site itself."

"It would turn our town into, effectively, an industrial site. Please revisit this design — move it 400 metres south."

In a statement sent to CBC News on Saturday, Osisko Development said it already shortened the building's height by one-third based on public concerns, and ended plans for a mine portal and water treatment plant beside Wells.

Company spokesperson Philip Rabenok also said alternative locations have "no basis from a technical or environmental sustainability perspective." 

The current site is already disturbed by mining, he said, whereas the alternatives are on endangered species habitat and would require trucks to haul ore through Wells.

Another resident, Gabe Fourchalk, Wells' former mayor and an equipment contractor for the mining firm, said the project will do good for the small town of Wells.

"It's kind of fundamental that we have a little bit of the arts, culture, tourism and industry," he told CBC News. 

"It all brings in the money that people need in a small town to survive."

More provincial permits required for the mine

Granting of the certificate comes after a nearly three-year review led by the provincial Environmental Assessment Office (EAO).

According to the EAO, getting provincial approval through the environmental assessment is just one step in the regulatory approval process.

"Provincial permits under the Mines Act and Environmental Management Act are still required before construction could start," the office said in an emailed statement to CBC.