Tuesday night, the company’s presidcent and CFO, Tyler Rice, and Ed Lawrence, a board member, held a meeting at the Miners’ Hall to explain some details of the project.
The underground mine closed down in 1973 when commodity prices dipped too low to keep the operation going.
The new project will make use of the heavy lime deposits on the property to produce concrete, which will be mixed with the tailings. The concrete mixture will then be used to fill the mine. While the operation will have four small tailings ponds on the surface next to the mill, the ponds will be used only for temporary storage.
Rice and Lawrence project that the project will offer 120 full-time jobs over the life of the mine, which is currently estimated at 10 years for the tungsten, and four to five years for the lead-zinc. The mine is also expected to generate a number of jobs in construction, trucking, and the hospitality industry. Hiring for the mine will have a local focus, but Rice wasn’t yet ready to define what that will mean.
The project is still in the very early stages, and has yet to go through the BC permitting and environmental review process. The purpose of the meeting was to start informing the public about the project, and for Rice and Lawrence to get a sense of the public’s concerns before they reach the public engagement periods necessary for the review.
