The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Jonathon Naylor Editor A major environmental group is demanding the NDP government reject final approval of the Reed Mine outside Snow Lake. The Wilderness Committee argues the planned copper mine, already well into development, will destroy provincial park land and interfere with caribou migration. 'It's a park. I thought parks were the one place we could escape mining and find solace in undisturbed nature,' Eric Reder, Manitoba campaign director for the group, said in a news release. 'This mine is a slap in the face of all Manitobans who, like me, value protecting wilderness.' Located about 80 kilometres west-southwest of Snow Lake, Hudbay's Reed Mine sits within the Grass River Provincial Park. It is situated near the edge of Reed Lake in what the Wilderness Committee calls 'a crucial travel corridor for endangered woodland caribou.' 'The surrounding forest has been protected from logging for decades in an effort to preserve caribou,' the group said in a news release issued late last week. 'This mine project would threaten a caribou range listed as 'high risk' by the Manitoba government. Hudbay's initial exploration work has already destroyed portions of their habitat.' See 'Long....' on pg. 7 Continued from pg. 1 The Wilderness Committee also fears a 'long-term toxic impact,' saying the 'devastation' from Hudbay's long-defunct Spruce Point Mine, also within the Grass River park, remains visible to this day. Not only does the Wilderness Committee want Reed rejected, it is also calling for an immediate ban on new mining claims in provincial parks. Conservation and Water Stewardship Minister Gord Mackintosh said Reed will go through a detailed environmental review before final approval is granted. He told the Winnipeg Free Press that to ban mining in all of Manitoba's provincial parks would see the North lose out on lucrative economic development opportunities. 'The Grass River park is situated on top of what I understand is one of the most prolific mining belts in Canada,' Mackintosh told the newspaper. Hudbay is working at Reed under what is known as a provincial advance exploration permit, which allows it to develop the site and mine up to 10,000 tons of ore. The mining claims have been converted to mining leases and all permits are in place except for the Environmental Act License (EAL), which allows Hudbay to mine the property. The EAL must include Hudbay's closure plan for the site and will not be granted unless officials are satisfied that the benefits of the project outweigh any environmental impacts. John Vincic, vice-president of investor relations and corporation communications for Hudbay, said the company expects to receive an EAL for Reed later this year. That would allow the company to meet its goal of starting to mine at Reed by the end of this year, he said. Vincic said zoning for the Grass River park allows for 'commercial resource uses such as forestry and mining, where such activities do not compromise other park purposes.' He said the Grass River and Clearwater provincial parks together contain nearly 10 per cent of the Flin Flon-Snow Lake Greenstone Belt. Spent millions Hudbay, which has already spent more than $20 million at Reed, expects to dole out another $44 million this year. The total capital budget is an estimated $72 million. Reder sees an inherent unfairness in allowing so much development to occur before the public was allowed to register its feedback. The deadline for public input is Feb. 19. 'As is often the case with the Manitoba government, the construction on site is so far along as to render the public consultations meaningless,' Reder said. 'Even without full approval of this mine, the impact of this exploration will be visible in the forest for the next half century.' In time the Reed site is to include a 50-person camp, a mechanical shop, a warehouse and a compressor building, along with other infrastructure. Ore will be trucked to the Flin Flon concentrator for crushing. The mine will be powered by diesel generators and power distributed underground and to surface buildings. As for Hudbay's Spruce Point Mine, which was open from 1981 to 1992, Vincic said the company has 'reclaimed' the site. But Reder wonders just how effective that reclamation was following his visit to the site in September of 2011. In a YouTube video of the visit, he points to 'industrial garbage' such as scrap metal and machine parts, as well as stretches of land void of vegetation. 'This points to a dangerous and invisible threat to this area _ toxic soil that is contaminated with heavy metal,' Reder says in the video. Nonetheless, it appears highly unlikely the NDP would reject the Reed Mine at this time. Not only has Hudbay invested millions in the project, Mines Minister Dave Chomiak himself was at the site in August 2012 for a ribbon-cutting ceremony. After beginning production in late 2013, Hudbay expects to wrap up the Reed Mine in 2018. At peak production the mine is expected to create nearly 80 jobs. Reed is nowhere near as large or rich as 777 and Lalor, HudBay's flagship northern Manitoba finds, but it does promise a stable stream of high-grade copper. HudBay expects average production at Reed to produce an average of 17,000 tonnes of copper metal a year _ about 85,000 tonnes over its lifespan. Hudbay owns 70 per cent of the project, with the remaining 30 per cent owned by junior miner VMS Ventures of Vancouver. According to the Wilderness Committee, Manitoba is one of the few jurisdictions in the world that still allows mining in parks. This despite the fact the group claims to have 25,000 letters from Manitobans who oppose industrial activity and logging in parks.
