The Conversation (0)
Pacific Booker Minerals (TSXV:BKM,NYSEAMEX:PBM) addressed inconsistency from the Ministry of Energy and Mines with respect to the Company’s compliance with the Provincial Metal Leaching/Acid Rock Drainage Policy.
As quoted in the press release:
The Ministry of Energy and Mines (“MEM”) expressed concerns with respect to the Company’s compliance with the Provincial Metal Leaching/Acid Rock Drainage (“ML/ARD”) Policy. The ML/ARD Policy provides for a variety of mitigation strategies that are available to prevent the impacts of ML/ARD. These include avoidance, underwater storage, blending of Potential Acid Generating and Non-Potential Acid Generating materials, covers, collection and treatment.
The Company’s strategy, as per the Feasibility Study, was to store waste rock on land adjacent to the open-pit, in the natural catchment draining into the pit. On closure an engineered low permeability cover was proposed and the seepage from the waste rock dump and pit-walls would be collected and treated. The collection and treatment of ARD is not the preferred choice, however, it is acceptable as per the ML/ARD Policy, ML/ARD Guidelines and precedence set by other projects. It can be a highly effective and reliable means for protecting the environment.
In October 2010, MEM asked the Company to provide a conceptual design for the engineered low permeability cover that led the Company to believe that on-land waste rock storage with a cover was acceptable. The Company revised the ML/ARD predictions and presented the results in Review Response Report Revision 1 in November 2010.
In December 2010, The Company was asked to make another major project change, placing the waste rock into the open-pit on closure. The Company again revised the ML/ARD predictions and presented the results in Review Response Report Revision 2 in June 2011. The BC Environmental Assessment Office (“EAO”) prepared a draft Environmental Assessment Report based on Review Response Report Revision 2 and presented it to the Working Group (“WG”) for comments in September 2011. As a result of comments received from the WG, the EAO commissioned an independent 3rd Party review. The Company prepared two 3rd Party Review Response reports to address input from 3rd Party reviewers.
As a result of the revisions, the EAO finalized the Environmental Assessment Report and concluded that the Morrison Copper/Gold Project does not have the potential for significant adverse effects which was supported by the independent 3rd Party review.
In October 2012, after being in the EA process since 2003, the Executive Director’s Report stated that the project was inconsistent with the ML/ARD Policy.
The Company wishes to state that the ML/ARD predictions have been prepared by Qualified Professionals. The ML/ARD Predictions document contains 1028 pages and represents work carried out since 2003. Water quality predictions have benefited from the large database available from the nearby Granisle and Bell mine sites that host geologically similar deposits. The availability of long-term geochemical data from full-scale facilities that can be used as proxy data for a new mine is a positive aspect to the Morrison environmental assessment. In addition the Company’s ML/ARD assessment includes 40+ year old Morrison drill core (drilled by Noranda from 1963 to 1973), which is being analyzed in on-site leach barrels.
The Company’s ML/ARD mitigation strategy of placing waste rock in the open-pit on closure results in a very small quantity (relative to the total waste rock) of exposed pit-wall rock that will contribute to ML/ARD. The Company strategy meets, or exceeds, the ML/ARD Policy of underwater storage and minimization of exposed mine rock on closure.
Click here to read the Pacific Booker Minerals (TSXV:BKM,NYSEAMEX:PBM) press release
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