Provincial decision looms for Cariboo Gold Mine at edge of Wells, B.C.

The tiny community of Wells, B.C., will soon learn if it will be home to a new gold mine — one that's divided the historic gold-rush district of just 220 residents.

After it passed its environmental review last month, the proposed $588-million Cariboo Gold Mine is awaiting a final decision from provincial cabinet ministers, who have until Wednesday to say yes or no.

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.

"There have been a few friends lost," said Gabe Fourchalk, Wells' former mayor and an equipment contractor for the mining firm. "With change, there comes a little bit of fear … some people are worried.

"In a small town, everybody is so, so close-knit."

Located roughly 100 kilometres southeast of Prince George, the community is best known for Barkerville Historic Town and Park, a gold mining museum and National Historic Site.

It's a major local employer at which many residents have worked as re-enactment actors, guides, or vendors.

Fourchalk and his father served as its Gold Rush-era blacksmiths for years. He resigned as mayor in 2021, citing mine-related divisions.

"You're always gonna have some ups and some downs, but overall this is a fantastic project," he told CBC News. "It's kind of fundamental that we have a little bit of the arts, culture, tourism and industry. 

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

Another longtime Barkerville museum employee, Dirk Van Stralen, owns the local Sunset Theatre and is an elected councillor in Wells. 

He 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."

'Past and future that's all laced with gold'

Osisko Development said it is has consulted extensively with the community, and will bring local investments and more than 450 jobs over the mine's 16-year lifespan, according to revised plans filed last year.

The underground mine would run 24 hours a day, all year, processing roughly 4,000 tonnes of ore a day, the company's filings state — from which it hopes to extract at least two million ounces of gold.

"We have strived, since its early conception, to do mining better and change the legacy left in Wells by past mining activities," the company wrote in a B.C. Environmental Assessment Office document. "Since 2016, we have engaged with our Indigenous partners and the local communities.

"Those exchanges help shape our project."

In a statement sent to CBC News on Saturday, the company 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.

But company spokesperson Philip Rabenok 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.

Resident CJ Johnston, who used to serve as the district's tourism and development officer, now works as a Barkerville Gold Mines contractor as driver, first aid attendant and cashier.

She said a "loud" minority oppose the mine under what she called a pretext of wanting to relocate its building.

"There's no chance of changing the location of the service building," she said, adding the building is so large because it is meant to address local concerns about noise, light and dust from a mine so close to residences.

"The horse has already left — why are you bothering to close the barn door?

"Do I want to have a great big, honking building in front of Wells? Probably not. But I want to be a part of … what that service building looks like."

She said it's ironic mine opponents only live in Wells because of its gold-related tourism industry.

"Not one drop of tourism in Wells would be there without gold," she said. "An operating mine … could connect between our past and future that's all laced with gold."

Van Stralen said many in the community are wary of a mining industry that, in the past, has left little but economic loss — and toxic pollution — after past mines closed.

"We understand the privilege of living where we do is a result of gold mining," he said. "But mining itself has not lasted as long as the tourism economy that has sprung up in its absence."

'Not in my front yard'

He takes issue with the accusation that residents opposed to the proposal are just saying "not in my backyard" (NIMBY) because they're afraid of change.

"It's actually 'NIMFYism,'" he said. "Which is 'not in my front yard.' Because that's actually what's being proposed." 

B.C.'s Environmental Assessment Office said in a statement Cariboo Gold Mine is the first project to go through the province's newly revamped review process for such operations. 

It issued requirements for Osisko to mitigate its impacts, after hearing from First Nations, a local Community Advisory Council, as well as concerns from Northern Health Authority over air quality impacts.

"I'm glad it's in the hands of the government now to make their decision," Fourchalk said. "It's out of everybody else's hands.

"I'm sure they're going to make the right choice."