CIM on British Columbia mining: hot air and windmills

The CIM session on mining in British Columbia was dominated by the absence of a powerline.  Specifically a powerline up Highway 37 through the backbone of the Province.  The absence of this decade-long-promised powerline is a major impediment to the opening of new mines in the north of British Columbia. 

For example, Imperial Metals’ Red Chris property is bedevilled by two impediments:

• Power — which would be available were the powerline to be installed
• Federal Permits –which were rescinded due to a legal technicality.

Then there is the Hard Creek Nickel’s Tornagain Mine which too may not be viable until a powerline is built. 

The powerline was planned and promised until Galore Creek suspended their plans to push ahead with the mine. 

At the CIM conference we were told that the mine planners for both Red Chris and Tornagain have looked at every energy source imaginable, including:

• Diesel – which is prohibitively expensive;
• Natural gas – which would have to come from a potential nearby field yet to be developed; and/or
• Wind — which is not feasible as the wind simply does not blow hard enough where the mines are located. 

The authors both urged us to go to www.highway37.com to find out more and register a plea to the politicians to proceed with the powerline. 

In a province where the average wage has dropped in the past twenty-five years from about $44 K to $41 K, I cannot understand how there is reticence to proceed to develop resources.  I suppose that the beauty of Vancouver and Victoria induces a kind of complacency and happiness that persist in spite of falling incomes: better happy than empowered or enmined?