Banks Island Gold Gets Pollution Abatement Order

Banks Island Gold (TSXV:BOZ) received a Pollution Abatement Order from the BC Ministry of Environment regarding a spill of water with sedimentation at the Bob Zone of its Yellow Giant project. The Ministry issued a stop order on the mineral process plant at the project on July 16th pending revised sediment control, water management and tailings management plans were provided, and the company has submitted all requested reports as of July 20th.
Banks Island is continuing limited activities on site. As quoted in the publication:

The Company received a Pollution Abatement Order from the BC Ministry of Environment on July 10^th in regards to a spill of water with sedimentation which occurred at the backfill dump location on June 25^th at the Bob Zone. The Company has been backfilling underground workings at Bob Zone with tailings from processing of mineralization. The Company has completed and reported an assessment of the spill which is estimated at 240m³ of water containing a total of 1 tonne of solids. Toxicity testing of the water indicated 100% survival of Rainbow Trout and Daphnia Magna in the affected area.
Sedimentation was also noted in the Discovery Zone where water containing drill cuttings had flowed into two small adjacent waterbodies. This material will be characterized and removed on approval from government regulators.
As a result of the Pollution Abatement Order, the Company was ordered to discontinue backfilling of the Bob Zone stope and provide a number of engineering reports and studies. In order to comply with this order, the Company immediately commenced preparation of the Tel Mine for backfilling. The Tel Mine currently has void space available for over 6 months of production.
It is notable that the Yellow Giant project has no surface storage of tailings. Banks Island Gold Ltd. is one of the only operators in the world that is successfully operating a Dense Media Separation (“DMS”) plant to pre-concentrate a primary gold ore. Pre-concentration rejects up to 50% of the mined mass in a coarse gravel sized product resulting in sufficient void space in underground workings to dispose of all tailings underground.
On July 16^th the BC Ministry of Mines inspected the Yellow Giant site and issued a stop order on the mineral process plant until a revised Sediment Control Plan, Water Management Plan, and Tailings management Plan was provided to the Chief Inspector. The Company has submitted the requested reports as at July 20^th.
The Company has maintained production by crushing and bagging high grade pyrrhotite derived from selective mining in development of the third level of the Discovery Zone without the use of the DMS plant and flotation circuit. The Company has so far produced 975dmt of concentrate in July. Assays for this material are pending.
The Company is in ongoing discussions with Ministry officials and will continue limited activities on-site in the next few days as it works with the regulatory authorities to ensure that operations can continue uninterrupted on a go-forward basis.

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