Australian owner of N.S. gold projects seeks to sell operations

The Australian company that ran Nova Scotia's Touquoy gold mine in Moose River, N.S., is hoping to divest itself of its Atlantic operations.

St Barbara announced Wednesday it is open to a "sale, vend-in or demerger" of its assets in Nova Scotia, which include the Fifteen Mile Stream, Beaver Dam and Cochrane Hill projects, as well as the Touquoy site.

Those projects are run by a subsidiary of St Barbara called Atlantic Mining Nova Scotia.

The Fifteen Mile Stream, Beaver Dam and Cochrane Hill projects are still in the development phase, do not have permits and are not currently involved in provincial or federal environmental assessment processes.

Active gold mining at the Touquoy site stopped in January 2023 and the company then turned its attention to processing stockpiled rock. That activity stopped in late September 2023 and no production has occurred at the site since.

Project 'financially robust,' company says

"The decision to separate Atlantic from St Barbara is underpinned by the opportunity to unlock the full value potential of the Atlantic projects under a Canadian listed company with a local leadership team, to focus on delivering upcoming project milestones and benefit from being closer to regulators and key stakeholders," St Barbara CEO Andrew Strelein said in a news release.

"Atlantic is a highly attractive and financially robust project and has the potential to be in production within 12 months from permitting approval." 

Atlantic Mining declined an interview request but said in a statement there are no redundancies or layoffs resulting from the decision.

Touquoy reclamation bond

Any new company that takes over the operations will also take over reclamation efforts at the former Touquoy mine. Atlantic Mining has paid in full an $80-million bond to the province to cover expenses associated with bringing the site back to a natural state. The company says it has spent over $7 million so far on reclamation activities.

But the reclamation process has not been without challenges.

Last year, the company appealed the reclamation criteria laid out by Environment Minister Tim Halman, saying the conditions set for water quality in the lakes and rivers around the mine cannot be met, and that the timelines were unreasonable.

The province rejected that appeal and the company then took its case to the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia.

The appeal is scheduled to be heard in November.

St Barbara has previously called into question the future of mining in Nova Scotia, accusing the Environment Department of "regulating the [mining] industry out of existence."

'Not a good corporate player,' says critic

Karen McKendry has been keeping tabs on the mining industry in Nova Scotia as part of her role as wilderness outreach co-ordinator with the Ecology Action Centre.

She says Atlantic Mining has not been "a good corporate player" in Nova Scotia.

The company previously faced 32 charges under the province's Environment Act for failing to comply with rules and for releasing excess amounts of substances into the environment.

It was also in the spotlight in 2019 for arresting a man who attended a public meeting about a proposed gold mine.

McKendry says the plan to hive the Atlantic operations off into a Canadian entity doesn't set her mind at ease.

"Canadian mining companies, some of them that operate in Canada and internationally, don't have the greatest reputation for protecting the environment or human health, so it doesn't matter to me who owns it," she said.

"So I don't know who would be the next person in line, but they might not be that great either."

Industry advocate decries permitting process

The executive director of the Mining Association of Nova Scotia says he believes the province's permitting system is to blame for the company's wish to exit.

"If they had been able to get the mines open as they had planned a bunch of years ago, then they wouldn't have any reason at this point to want to spin off the business," Sean Kirby said of Atlantic Mining.

"We need to eliminate red tape. We need to make the rules clear and consistently applied and we need to ensure that it's based on science and that there are reasonable time frames for getting permitting done so that we can attract investment and create jobs for Nova Scotia."

Kirby said Atlantic Mining has contributed jobs and economic activity to the province, and he hopes a new owner can continue that by making the proposed gold mines a reality.

Atlantic Mining said in its statement that it expects the separation to occur later this year.