Clayoquot Mine?

by Sierra Club of B.C.
Clayoquot Sound is prized for its rare ancient rainforests and splendid mountain vistas. Now a Vancouver-based mining company wants to dig for a different kind of treasure in this UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.

 

Catface Mountain, visible from Tofino, is believed to contain up to 155 million tonnes of copper, as well as undetermined quantities of silver and gold. Selkirk Metals Corp. has applied to the BC Ministry of Mines for a permit to conduct exploratory drilling on Catface’s north side. 

Drilling will determine whether or not it is economically feasible to develop a low-grade copper-molybdenum deposit into a large open-pit mine. Even exploratory drilling would be environmentally damaging, and the local Ahousaht First Nation is deeply divided over the proposal.

Take Action to stop the copper mine.

In 2000, in recognition of its global ecological importance, Clayoquot Sound was designated a Biosphere Reserve by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Learn more about Clayoquot Sound.

 

[To emphasize the destructiveness of Selkirk's proposal for Cat Face Mountain's future, below is a description of a similar operation, replete with an illustrative satellite photo of the utter and complete environmental destruction attending this form of mining. - lex]

 

Dear Friends,
 
Below is a recent satelite photo of what used to be a beautiful place called Huckleberry Mountain where mountain goats used to live. This was part of a territory shared by the Cheslatta Carrier Nation and the Wetsuweten people.

 

Now it is an ever expanding open pit copper and molybdenum mine which plans (or is already) releasing heavy metal laced effluent into Tatsah Reach (Cheslatta fishing grounds)
 
When Allan Savage of the small mining company called New Canamin first came knocking on Cheslatta's door about starting an open pit copper mine, I don't think he was taken very seriously because he was a small player and the project was huge and in the distant future.

 

Soon, Princeton Mining and a Japanese Consortium bought him out, blasting began and now Imperial Metals owns this mine and wants to exploit other deposits in this area.

 

Except for a few jobs, Cheslatta didn't benefit from this mine. I worked at Cheslatta for four years. I first met Allan Savage in the Cheslatta band office about 1992. By the time I left Cheslatta in 1996, I had witnessed a bogus environmental review which pretty much rubber-stamped the mine, a Cheslatta Supreme court challenge against the mine which we lost (the mine was approved) and huge splits in the local First Nations communities over Jobs VS the Environment. 

 

Allan Savage (now of Doublestar) has recently come knocking on the door of Ahousaht First Nation near Tofino. His proposal to build an open pit copper mine on Catface Mountain in Ahousaht Territory appalls me after seeing what is left of Huckleberry Mountain.

 

I was blessed to have visited there with Elder George Louis before it was blown to bits.
 
These are my thoughts on the proposed Catface openpit copper mine.
 
For Land and Life,
John H.W. Hummel
Nelson, B.C.