Opposition mounts to proposed decade-long placer project in Dawson City, Yukon

Placer miner Darrell Carey wants approval to spend the next 10 years sluicing for gold on a parcel of land in Dawson City.

But municipal officials want to use that land for housing, and they don't want to wait a decade.

Carey this week filed an application with the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board (YESAB), seeking approval to sluice an existing pile of rocks and gravel.

According to documents filed with YESAB, Carey plans to process 5,000 cubic metres of material during each of the first nine years of the project, and 2,000 cubic metres in the final year. He plans to use water from nearby dredge ponds and return that water to those ponds.

"This area has previously been disturbed by placer miners," Carey writes in the documents. "I am planning to process the pay gravel at the mine site using a new sluice box to clean the larger rocks in the tailings on site." He did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

The work would take place on two mining claims owned by Carey located between Boutillier Road and the Klondike Highway. The site is directly across the Klondike Highway from the residential Tr'ondëk subdivision. Carey is also seeking approval for a fuel tank and work camp on other claims he owns just east of Dome Road.

Town officials oppose application

In submissions to YESAB, officials with the City of Dawson say the project would violate zoning bylaws and the town's official community plan. While municipal officials acknowledge Carey has existing development permits to complete prior work on the site, they're opposed to a 10-year extension.

That's partly because the town has eyes on the land for housing development. The sluicing is to take place on land zoned for urban residential use.

"It is unreasonable to continue to encumber land that is designated for housing for another 10 years with a use that could be easily accommodated in a more appropriate location," reads the town's submission. 

'He doesn't need 10 years'

The Yukon Conservation Society (YCS) is urging YESAB to recommend the government reject the application, or at least require Carey to limit noise coming from his operation.

But Sebastian Jones, a Dawson resident and fish and wildlife analyst with YCS, said the biggest issue is that Carey's project would take too long.

"All he really needs to do now is to finish up sluicing that pile of paydirt, clean up the site and move on, and he doesn't need 10 years for that," Jones said.

The project is the latest instalment in series of disputes between Carey, local residents and governments that goes back nearly a decade. In 2014, the Yukon government agreed to re-route Dome Road around Carey's Slinky Mine project at a cost of $1.3 million.

In 2016 the government rejected Carey's application to mine claims east of Dome Road.

YESAB has extended the deadline for public submissions on the project until April 27.