VANCOUVER/CNW/ – Yellowhead Mining Inc. announced on Nov. 11 that it has submitted its application for an environmental assessment certificate for its Harper Creek project to the BC Environmental Assessment Office in accordance with the provisions of the British Columbia Environmental Assessment Act.
The EA application was also submitted to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, as the EA application constitutes an environmental impact assessment (“EIS”) under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act.
“The submission by Yellowhead of the EA application/EIS for the Harper Creek project to the BC EAO/CEA Agency marks the end of a 10 month process to completely update, restructure and rewrite the EA application/EIS, and represents another milestone in the development of Harper Creek” noted Frank D. Wheatley, CEO of Yellowhead.
“The EA application/EIS reflects our efforts over the past year to incorporate a series of design improvements, with a particular focus on waste and water management, to further reduce and mitigate the potential environmental impacts resulting from the development of Harper Creek” continued Wheatley.
With the submission of the EA application to the BC EAO, the 30-day screening period to ensure that the EA application is complete, has now commenced.
Once the EA application has been screened and accepted by BC Environmental Assessment Office, BC EAO has a 180-day period to complete its review, with the involvement of a Working Group, including representatives of First Nations, local governments and other government agencies.
The BC EAO then will prepare an assessment report for a decision by the Minister of Environment and the Minister of Energy and Mines on granting an environmental assessment certificate for the Harper Creek project. In coordination with the British Columbia provincial permitting process, CEA Agency will review the EIS.
In April 2013, the company submitted its original application for an environmental assessment certificate for the project to BC EAO.
In May 2013, BC EAO identified a number of deficiencies with, and provided a number of comments on, the original application, and requested that the company address such deficiencies and comments.
Yellowhead believes the EA application submitted to the BC EAO on Tuesday addresses all of those comments and deficiencies.
About the Harper Creek Project
Harper Creek is a proposed 70,000 tonnes-per-day open pit copper mine with a 28 year mine life, located in the Thompson-Nicola region of British Columbia near Vavenby. Harper Creek has a four year development period, with the initial two years focused on environmental and construction permitting, and the second two years dedicated to construction. Harper Creek would provide up to 660 jobs during construction and up to 450 permanent jobs during operations.
About Yellowhead Mining Inc.
Yellowhead Mining Inc. is a development stage company with a 100 per cent interest in the Harper Creek project.
The proposed Harper Creek mine would be a large scale, long life, low cost open pit copper mine.
For more information on Yellowhead and the Harper Creek project, visit Yellowhead’s website at www.yellowheadmining.com.
