Photo by Chuck Tobin
GIVING ASSURANCES AT THE FORUM – President Paul West-Sells, seen this week in Whitehorse, says Casino Mining Corp. is taking steps to ensure the planned tailings facility will be engineered to the highest standards.
Tailings dam will get top scrutiny, company promises
The Casino Mining Corp. is going the extra mile to ensure acceptance of its tailings dam and pond facility, says company president Paul West-Sells.
The Casino Mining Corp. is going the extra mile to ensure acceptance of its tailings dam and pond facility, says company president Paul West-Sells.
West-Sells told an audience during the technical talks at this week’s annual Yukon Geoscience Forum that Casino is taking steps to ensure the tailings facility will be engineered to the highest standards.
The design will also receive the highest level of scrutiny from experts in the industry, West-Sells said.
He said the company has made an unprecedented decision to bring on an independent engineering panel to oversee the work.
Bringing on an independent panel at this point in the design phase, West-Sells told the audience, is virtually unheard of.
“But because we heard the public concern, we have decided to bring this panel on early,” he said.
Casino is planning to build the largest mine in the Yukon’s history.
The former open pit operation at Faro would process 12,000 tonnes a day.
The Casino mine is proposing to process 122,000 tonnes per day over the current 22-year life of the open pit operation. As well, there is an expectation the confirmation of more viable ore bodies could push the mine life out to 50 years.
The tailings dam is expected to be the third largest in the world.
It will rise to a height of 286 metres (938 feet), or 15 times the height of the Andrew Philipsen Law Centre on Second Avenue. It will span a distance of 2.5 kilometres.
Casino’s tailings facility was one of two primary reasons why the executive committee of the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board decided early this year to bump the project up to a more intensive panel review – the first in the board’s 11-year history.
The executive committee explained last February that after several months of reviewing the project proposal, it decided it would be appropriate to send the project through the highest level of screening available under the assessment legislation.
The committee also expressed the need to have a closer look at the potential impact a new mining road would have on the Klaza caribou herd.
The Casino site is located 150 kilometres northwest of Carmacks and Dawson City, on the west side of the Yukon River.
Not long after Casino unveiled its plans, the Little Salmon-Carmacks First Nation retained a reputable international engineering firm in 2014 to look at the tailings management facility. The firm set out 82 specific and technical questions that needed to be answered.
West-Sells said the schedule the company has put forward to the assessment board calls for Casino Mining to have its revamped project proposal into the board by the end of 2017.
The company’s proposal already contains 24,000 pages, he told the audience, while humourously inviting anyone interested to have a read, as the material is all available.
West-Sells said once the proposal is filed, the board will appoint its panel.
The company maintains it has made significant changes to the design of its tailings dam and pond that will minimize the risk of any hazardous waste material from entering the local watershed that eventually drains into the Yukon River.
West-Sells explained the redesign, for instance, calls for 80 per cent less water to cover the tailings, significantly reducing the load on the dam.
“We were able to go from having a tailings pond to having a tailings puddle,” he said.
He pointed out the company was the first to sign on to the strict guidelines the Mining Association of Canada has developed for designing and constructing dams and ponds to manage tailings.
“It can’t be overemphasized how strict this is.”
West-Sells said the project will adhere to or surpass the tighter B.C. regulations that unfolded in the wake of the catastrophic failure of the Mount Polley tailings dam in August 2014.
Everything that was learned from the Mount Polley inquiry will be incorporated in the planning and design of the Casino tailings facility, he said.
West-Sells pointed out, for instance, the redesign of the Casino dam calls for removing all material below right down to bedrock, so that the dam can be anchored to the bedrock.
Add your comments or reply via Twitter @whitehorsestar
In order to encourage thoughtful and responsible discussion, website comments will not be visible until a moderator approves them. Please add comments judiciously and refrain from maligning any individual or institution. Read about our user comment and privacy policies.
Your name and email address are required before your comment is posted. Otherwise, your comment will not be posted.
Comments (13)
Up 0 Down 0
perspective on Nov 30, 2016 at 9:02 pm
That's right JustSay'in, let's get it from the people that control the prices we pay at the pump, and work at the alternative technology for when they run out or blow themselves to smithereens in a fanatical ideological war.
Up 8 Down 8
Just Say'in on Nov 29, 2016 at 2:44 pm
What a pile of NIMBY's we have here.
I guess it is OK to use oil and gas as long as it is shipped from somewhere else increasing its cost and carbon footprint? The fact that virtually everything we build our houses out of or consume came from mining and extraction and industry directly or indirectly shouldn't matter or be taken into consideration. Most of the people that are against everything are people with Social Welfare jobs (Government Positions). Working people need good paying jobs as well, so that there is tax money going to Ottawa to be transferred back to pay for your Positions. Keep in mind that The Last One Out ……Turns Out The Lights. Because there won't be anyone to Govern.
Up 6 Down 3
NeilAlexGeddy on Nov 29, 2016 at 12:07 pm
@Salar
I agree with you 100% , deeming this activity as environmental lunacy before seeing the final report from YESSAB. Let's get the town folk all riled up and create a firestorm at the public hearings.
Fight the good fight people.
Up 6 Down 7
Salar on Nov 29, 2016 at 8:08 am
Neilalexgiggy.....anti disaster crowd you meant? Industry should happen, setting up for sure environmental idiocy should not. But keep up the good fight eh...
Up 17 Down 14
reality check on Nov 28, 2016 at 3:39 pm
The claim is that this tailing pond is going to be sound and intact for... wait for it: FOREVER.
That is the actual claim of this mining corporation. The toxic waste behind it will never be safe. If it fails, it wipes out the Yukon River. But don't worry!
Up 16 Down 13
NeilAlexGeddy on Nov 28, 2016 at 3:08 pm
I am in agreement with the eco-sentiment displayed by the anti-ining crowd. We have to take this several steps higher and apply this sentiment to all manufacturing and processing sectors in Canada. I am more than willing to destroy the Canadian economy, wipe my butt with corn cobs , whittle tools from driftwood, heat my cave with moose dung, and communicate with the outside world through carrier falcons.
Keep fighting the good fight.
Up 20 Down 12
ProScience Greenie on Nov 28, 2016 at 1:02 pm
Lots of other places in the world to do mining where the land and people are not as special or as important as we are here in the Yukon. Best to let them take the risks and then we can simply enjoy the end products here at home. Win-win for the Yukon.
Up 15 Down 5
Stu Winter on Nov 28, 2016 at 12:31 pm
Curious George
I recall hearing the proposed gold mine near Mayo would have 3 truckloads of cyanide shipped each week. Seems like a lot but its done elsewhere in the world and hopefully relatively safe.
I have seen the result of a cyanide spill in a river near Guelph. Fish swimming in circles as they died. It pretty much killed everything in the river.
Up 12 Down 4
Curious George on Nov 27, 2016 at 6:14 pm
Is anyone aware of what type of ore recovery system the Coffee Gold people are going to use? Is it heap leech with a membrane or heap leech with vats and cyanide? How much cyanide will be used on an annual basis?
Up 8 Down 14
Stu Winter on Nov 27, 2016 at 3:01 pm
Those environmentalists are always pushing a gloom and doom agenda. Always trying to protect this or that or keep mining and oil and gas out of this or that area.
Between 1970 and 2012 the 3,700 continuously monitored species around the globe only declined on average by 58%. That is not that bad given all the pollution and habitat loss and habitat fragmentation and overharvesting.
Who cares about the Living Planet Index anyways. We need mines and big dams and everything will be just fine- Or will it?
Up 26 Down 10
June Jackson on Nov 25, 2016 at 8:12 pm
Every mine that ever was in the Yukon made a semi truck full of promises. Just make sure that this mine puts down enough money to cover the cost of clean up when they abandon it. The prior government negotiators thought 10 million as a damage deposit was ohhhhhhh that's so much money... What was Cyprus Anvil? A hundred million and still climbing? What's the price tag on Wolverine?
I am all for responsible extraction of our ores.. the key word being responsible. No fracking, no deaths because safety regulations weren't followed and no clean ups.
Not one mining outfit has ever come in here and said.. wow..are you guys screwed...
Up 25 Down 13
perspective on Nov 25, 2016 at 6:14 pm
I don't think we've got fifty years. I don't think we've got twenty years. Sounds pessimistic, but the superior engineered pond is going to have to last with maintenance for how long? Please provide some perspective on the life of the pond,
200 years, more, or less? The owners, promoters, and engineers will more than likely be dead in fifty years. This means they are speculating on a future after they are dead. In other words, someone else's future!
Up 22 Down 22
jc on Nov 25, 2016 at 5:26 pm
Excuse my pessimism, but let's be honest and face it, no matter how good and efficient it may be, it will never satisfy the FN or environmentalists. In all my years I have never seen either get completely on board with mining or oil and gas projects.