Derek Neary
Northern News Services
Fort Simpson (Jun 15/01) - Bureaucratic foot-dragging is holding up development at the Prairie Creek mine and chipping away at the nerves of the company's president and CEO.
"My major concern is that the speed that permitting is going at the moment, for whatever reason, is seriously going to hamper our ability to bring the mine into production on time," said Malcolm Swallow.
| Prairie creek at a glance:
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Canadian Zinc expects to receive a land-use permit this week for a six-hole drilling program on the mine site, located northwest of Nahanni Butte. In part, the purpose of that drilling is to further increase confidence in the mine's mineral content, Swallow explained.
The Vancouver-based company applied more than 10 months ago for a permit from the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board. That application was referred to the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board. Swallow is frustrated by the turn-around time.
"If we were in Ontario, it would take a week. If we were in B.C., it would take four weeks. If we're in the Northwest Territories, it takes 10 months," he said of the procedure.
Chuck Blyth, superintendent of Nahanni National Park Reserve, which lies near the Prairie Creek mine site, defended the NWT's maturing regulatory regime. Blyth, who has referred a few of Canadian Zinc's land-use and water applications to environmental assessment, argued that the system is "getting better and better each time" it is used.
"I would say it's a good system. It's just one that we're all learning how to use properly," he said.
By comparison, under the former the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, a proposal to upgrade the road to the mine site (then known as San Andreas mine) in the mid-1990s required a full environmental assessment which took nearly a year and a half to complete, Blyth said.
Also under that act, a mine bordering Jasper National Park in Alberta underwent a full panel review that took close to five years, according to Blyth.
"In this case (with Prairie Creek) it's a mine closer to a national park and upstream," he noted.
Canadian Zinc's has a second application for an even larger drilling program, which is about to undergo environmental assessment as well.
The company has purchased a pilot plant, but won't move it to the mine site until all the permits are in place, Swallow said.
"Everything is tied to everything else, and, unfortunately, everything is behind the 8-ball because of the speed at which permitting goes," he said.
"The real problem is (the mine) is in a real picturesque area," Swallow said.
"We've just got to figure out some way of getting the best out of both."
