Photo by: Duane Daws
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) in Canada has approved ASX- and TSX-listed Coalspur’s Vista coal project, paving the way for the company to finalise detailed licences and permits over the coming months.
“Receipt of this approval represents an important step in Coalspur’s vision to be a leading export thermal coal producer. The certainty that the decision provides positions the company well as it works to finalise the remaining funding for Vista over the coming months,” president and CEO Gill Winckler said.
The AER approval includes various requirements or conditions relating to Vista’s coal processing plant, mine plan and end-pit lake, geotechnical investigations, fines management, surface water quality, wetlands, wildlife and noise mitigation. Coalspur stated that it was confident it could abide by the conditions.
Coalspur initially planned to start construction at Vista in September last year, but had to delay activities while awaiting development approval. Regulatory approval had initially been scheduled for the end of June, with project completion planned for mid-2015, but the AER received a number of statements of concern against the Vista project.
Phase 1 of the Vista development, in the Hinton region of Alberta, would involve the construction and commissioning of a six-million-tonne-a-year thermal coal facility with the capacity to expand to 12-million tonnes a year.