TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – The chief inspector of mines for British Columbia, Al Hoffman, has approved an amendment to the Mount Polley Mine Corporation Mines Act permit to allow the company to start repairs of the breach in its tailings storage facility dam.
The repair work was part of the long-term remediation plan for the area impacted by the August Mount Polley breach, the provincial Ministry of Energy and Mines said.
The work at the tailings storage facility would help ensure that the increased water flow from melting snow (also known as spring freshet or spring breakup) will not result in further environmental or human health impacts.
The amendment to the mine’s permit only authorises the company to undertake the approved breach repair work and set out a number of conditions that would have to be followed by Imperial Metals subsidiary Mount Polley Mining Corporation. The amendment does not allow the mine to restart its ore-processing operations.
The Cariboo Mine Development Review Committee, which included technical representatives from the provincial government, Williams Lake Indian Band, Xat’sull First Nation, Cariboo Regional District, Community of Likely, and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada had reviewed the Mines Act permit amendment application and geotechnical design for the breach repair.
Mount Polley Mining was responsible to bear the cost of the clean-up effort associated with the breach, including the environmental remediation and site restoration. The Ministry of Environment would continue to oversee all remediation work undertaken by the company, while a long-term environmental monitoring programme was implemented. The Ministry would continue to oversee all work on the mine site.
In the early hours of August 4, a tailings pond breach occurred at the Mount Polley mine in south-central British Columbia, near the town of Likely, releasing millions of litres of mine waste into the pristine natural environment.
In the wake of Imperial Metals’ Mount Polley mining disaster, the British Columbia government ordered independent third-party reviews of 98 permitted tailings impoundments at 60 operating and closed metal and coal mines in the province.
Under the Health, Safety and Reclamation Code for Mines in British Columbia, the deadline for a normal yearly dam safety inspection would have been March 31, 2015, and would not have required an independent third-party review.
However, the chief inspector accelerated the date for inspections to December 1 and added the requirement for an independent review by a qualified, third-party professional engineer from a firm not associated with the tailings facility.