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President Paul West-Sells
Casino eyes late 2018 for project proposal
The Casino Mining Corp. expects to have its project proposal ready by the end of next year,
The Casino Mining Corp. expects to have its project proposal ready by the end of next year, says company president Paul West-Sells.
West-Sells said Wednesday the number one issue is arriving at a management system to handle the tailings that is supported by all parties, including the First Nations and the regulatory authorities.
Everybody is at the table and all options are being discussed and examined, he told the Star.
West-Sells cited the practice in B.C. following the August 2014 failure of the Mount Polley tailings dam. Companies are now required to examine all options for managing tailings.
“All technologies need to be looked at and that is exactly what we are doing here,” he said.
West-Sells said the use of dry stack tailings is also being investigated. Dry stack tailings do not require a tailings pond nor a dam to hold back the pond.
Rather, it’s a means of stacking dried tailings and putting an impermeable cover over top, in the same way Alexco Resource handled tailings from its Bellekeno Mine.
Casino was expected to deliver its project proposal for the Casino mine, otherwise referred to as its Environmental and Socio-economic Statement, by the end of this year.
It notified the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board last week that it would be delaying the submission until the end of 2018.
In a press release issued last Friday, the company cited the ongoing work to determine the best available tailings technology and the timelines the Yukon government has identified to secure the necessary permits for road upgrades.
Casino spent almost two years under review by the assessment board’s executive committee before the committee bumped it up to a full panel review in February 2016. It is the first panel review in the board’s 12-year history.
The committee cited the tailings facility and the potential impact the road would have on the Klaza caribou herd as the reasons for going to a more extensive panel review.
The tailings dam proposed in the initial application would be among the world’s largest, at a height of 286 metres and spanning 2.5 kilometres.
The pond was estimated to eventually cover 11 square kilometres (two miles by two miles).
While the management of the tailings is the key focus right now, West-Sells said, there are also ongoing discussions about the impact on the caribou herd.
It’s expected Casino will wrap up its review by the middle of next year.
That would leave the company six months to work their conclusions into the project proposal before submitting it to the assessment board, he said.
Rob Yeomans, the assessment board’s communication officer, explained Wednesday once the proposal has been deemed complete and ready to proceed to a public hearing, the assessment board will have two weeks to appoint its three-member panel from its existing board of directors.
Once the panel has been appointed, it will have 15 months to make its recommendation, he explained.
If Casino comes to be, the copper-gold, open pit mine would be the largest in the territory’s history. It’s expected to process 120,000 tonnes per day.
The former Faro lead-zinc mine, once the driving force in the territory’s economy, processed in the order of 12,000 tonnes a day.
The Casino project is located between Carmacks and Dawson City.
Access would require upgrades to the existing Freegold Road and 130 kilometres of new road.
The estimated cost of bringing the mine into production is $2.5 billion.
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Comments (10)
Up 2 Down 0
north_of_60 on Oct 4, 2017 at 5:00 pm
If they eliminate the hazardous 'time bomb' tailings pond and dam, then I have no problem with Casino and the employment it will bring. Everyone is not a socialist parasite willing to compromise their personal integrity to suck at the government teat.
Socialists who feel threatened by such statements will surely give this comment 'thumbs down'.
Up 14 Down 1
BradleyV on Oct 3, 2017 at 4:38 pm
I work in mining industry and without it I wouldn't have a decent job. Not everyone can work for YTG.
Up 10 Down 2
ProScience Greenie on Oct 3, 2017 at 10:16 am
Warlord - not pro or anti. Rather neutral, judging each project based on the science, engineering and economic analysis. A tentative thumbs up to Casino without the giant tailings dam for example. Thumbs down to Howard's Pass - too big and remote and low grade. A big thumbs up to Mactung. Huge thumbs down to any oil and gas in the Yukon.
Again, if we don't have mining then what is the alternative solution to provide jobs for Yukon people that come with a good wage and decent benefits? Serious question.
And why does tourism and other industries with significant negative environmental, socioeconomic (read low wage, no benefits) and carbon footprints always get a free pass?
Up 16 Down 1
Jim on Oct 1, 2017 at 10:16 pm
Guys, do I sense a panic that casino will be built? They're now at that stage and ready for dry stacking. Means no Tailings dam!
Is this the reason you guys come with this extreme left swing ? Corporate profits so on ...? Seriously in Canada ...?
No other arguments left?
They will put tons of money and employ hundreds for at least 55 years.
Just look at couple other miners currently building, look at their hiring practices, Yukon will prosper no matter how you swing it! Liberals understood it and now with plan are moving forward.
And look at now, Casino will do it without Tailings dam! 2 years ago was not even considered!
Up 8 Down 12
warlord on Sep 30, 2017 at 12:31 pm
ProScience Greenie would do well to change his pen name to ProMining Greenie,
so that all may see the glaring contradictions and ambiguities of Mining = jobs = Clean Environment=Sustainable Future in the face of all the signs of a looming catastrophe.
Up 8 Down 14
Dave Evans on Sep 29, 2017 at 8:48 pm
@greenie @sayin you speak of baubles while they make off with the goods. I speak to the fact that corporate interests making cash is what drives the exploitation, not our need for jobs. There is no intrinsic benevolence in the jobs offered that yukoners would see other than, as I said, a by product of the grab for cash. Yes we need jobs....why can't we realize the value added aspects in house? Hire consultants, gear up, whatever.....why does it take a huge corp to do it for the lions share?
Anyway....interesting that you both commented on the need to pick at crumbs (short term employment) as a talking point but ignore any aspect other than that in reference to my post.
@greenie If tourism, the arts, fashion etc. mean multinationals drive the bus than ya....same opinion. Why sleep with giants who seek to profit on risk at our ultimate expense, have no vested interest in the territory unless it aids in their quest and worst case cannot, potentially, mitigate the risk represented by the sheer scale of this proposal?
@sayin......not sure how you arrived at the assumption that I live off the government. Care to expand on that? Is the assumption a social assistance angle or a govie job tone I gave off? Either would be false in any case. I am a product of my environment, I conduct myself daily in accordance with my responsibility as a provider much the same as all those around me but make no mistake, I see what Casino represents and it isn't about jobs for us unless it suits the suits.
Up 11 Down 2
Just Say'in on Sep 29, 2017 at 6:22 pm
I guess the WH Star doesn't like being critiqued on this article as my comment was rejected. However you should do more due diligence in the numbers you throw around. Faro was NOT 12 Tonnes a day. That is how fake news gets going, deliberate or not. Perhaps it was 12,000 Tonnes a day. You should print the comments you receive, it was not controversial just the facts.
Up 22 Down 10
Just Say'in on Sep 29, 2017 at 12:56 pm
@ Dave Evans. Boy you are a Hater aren't ya. This is called industry and good paying value added jobs that bolster our economy and give our young people a chance at a good life with a strong future. Not everyone can live off of the Government like you. The money for Government comes from somewhere right????
Up 20 Down 11
ProScience Greenie on Sep 29, 2017 at 12:32 pm
Do you have the same take on the tourism, arts, fashion and other industries Dave E. or just mining?
People need good jobs, if you don't want to see mining please suggest other realistic ways they can feed their families.
Up 10 Down 23
Dave Evans on Sep 28, 2017 at 5:09 pm
Quite a big fuss with pretty big numbers. 2.5 billion to arrive at production...whew!
I Imagine what they plan to take away must be pretty significant in the shareholder's eyes. Too bad the best the locals will see is a few jobs while the corp walks off with what they came for and leave their legacy of greed when either the markets tank or the resource is depleted.
I am amazed in this day and age that people do not see what these corps do elsewhere, see why they have come here. They are here to realize a profit on an investment. Period. They are not here to work towards fulfilling a need, even if the need exists. If a need is met by their actions is it shearly a by-product as the corp quests for profit. If a need was being met in their actions it would stop as soon as the potential for profit ceased to exist. There is nothing noble in what they do, nothing redeeming from a societal stand point....beads and blankets for gold and silver.
They do not come for nothing, they come for money you and I can only imagine. Ironically it is you and I and our kids who will bear the burden of their profiteering long after the corp has moved on to do it all again somewhere else.
I've been able to see a few sites where the money and effort is staggering in the effort to exploit a given resource or area. The money to be made must be huge indeed.
This is why they come offering something that might sound good to us while they walk off with pockets stuffed to a degree we can literally not even imagine.
We live in a rich area. They know this and, largely, we do not it seems by even entertaining such a concept of theft of commons.