Selwyn Resources has re-filed its Yukon Environmental Socio-economic Assessment Board (YESAB) application to conduct exploration and test mining plans in and around Howards Pass.

The company unexpectedly withdrew its initial application last week, a day after the March 16 deadline to receive public comments on the project proposal.

In a letter to the assessment board's Watson Lake office, the company indicated it could not possibly respond in one day to the volume of comments and concerns filed by the Yukon government on the second-last day of the review process.

"We are disappointed that the review process has been managed in such a way that all available extensions to the Seeking Views and Information Stage have been exhausted, and that we have been left with no time to formulate responses,” the company indicated in its March 17 notice of withdrawal.

"We intend to resubmit the project in its present form, which will reset the review timelines and will afford us with the time needed to respond to the comments submitted at the end of the current Seeking Views and Information Stage,”

Selwyn Resources re-filed its application on the very same day it withdrew the original. Based on issues raised by the Yukon government and Environment Canada, the assessment board has asked the company to address 13 specific issues by the new April 6 deadline for input into the application.

On March 15, more than two months after the proposal first went out for public review, the Yukon government submitted a package containing submissions from eight government departments and branches.

Submissions ranged from no concerns by the mining branch, provided Selwyn follows standard practices, to 19 pages of comments and issues raised by staff at water resources.

The submission by water resources, for instance, suggested there are significant gaps in the information required to make an informed assessment of the project proposal.

Environment Canada has also raised several concerns around water management at the site, and in other areas such as the impact on migratory birds.

Both the Ross River Dena Council and Liard First Nation of Watson Lake filed objections to the process on the March 16 deadline for comments.

The two Kaska first nations are without Yukon aboriginal land claim settlements.

In their separate submissions, however, they emphasize the project proposal is inside traditional Kaska territory where they have existing aboriginal rights and title. Those rights, they suggest, entitle them to meaningful consultation on such matters, but that has not occurred.

"We urge the YESAB to inform the Governments of Canada and Yukon that you cannot recommend approval of the proposed project in the absence of proper consultation with, and accommodation of, the Ross River Dena Council,” Ross River Chief Jack Caesar writes in his letter to the YESAB.

Liard First Nation Chief Liard McMillan pointed out his first nation cannot participate meaningfully in the review process without assistance. It cannot afford to use financial resources it requires for social programs to involve itself with a dozen or so proposed developments in Kaska territory, he wrote.

YESAB spokesman Steve Carman said he informed Sewlyn officials last week that the only option to buy more time under the existing rules for applications handled by the district offices was to withdraw and resubmit.

Carman pointed out proposed changes to the assessment and the review process are currently under review, and are designed to avoid situations which created last week's time crunch.

Justin Himmelright, Selwyn's vice-president of environment and community affairs, said today he does not think the new review schedule will delay the company's extensive development plans for this year.

Selwyn could be spending up to $50 million to advance underground work and bulk sampling, along with surface works and the necessary studies required for permitting, he said.

The YESAB application, for instance, requests approval to increase capacity at one camp from 50 to 100 workers, and from 50 to 60 at a second camp.

At the peak of operations this summer, Himmelright indicated, it's likely both camps will be full.

He said Selwyn recognizes its YESAB application was at the high end of projects normally reviewed at the six local assessment offices around the territory, and that its complexity required the additional time for an adequate review.

Meanwhile, Selwyn president Harlan Meade said the company is on track to complete the $100-million joint venture agreement with the Chihong Zinc and Germanium Co. Ltd. well in advance of the June 7 deadline.

The joint venture allowing the Chinese company to buy 50 per cent of the Selwyn project was announced last December.

Selwyn Resources likes to describe its Selwyn project in the Selwyn Mountains along the Yukon-N.W.T. border as one of the largest known lead-zinc deposits in the world.