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News
In Brief

- [miles downstream,

a i te ~ ia a eeienis

Methanex

fined

METHANEX CORP, has
pleaded guilty to a pollution
charge in connection with a
spill of ammonia into Douglas
Channel at Kitimal two years
ago,

The company was fined
$1,000 and was ordered to pay
$24, 000 toward a serics of fish
enhancement projects in the
Kitimat area,

About $16,000 will go
toward a log cabling program
to help stabilize the banks of
the Kitimat River,

The remaining $8,000 goes
to the Stream Keepers volunter
program. Thai money will be
used to buy fish food, waders
and tools for a volunteer en-
hancement program at Mi.
Elizabeth Senior Secondary
school in Kitimat.

DFO field supervisor Dennis
Burnip said the March 26,
1993 spill of about 45 gallons
of ammonia killed some adult
herring and cegs ina weed bed
where fish had been spawning.

River runs
through it

A COUPLE new to town got a
rude surprise when they went
fishing and parked — their

camper on the banks of the

Skeena last week,

They heard there was good
fishing at China Bar, about 50
and de-
cided to overnight there last
Tuesday, said RCMP Staff Set.
John Veldman.

“They woke up in the morn-
ing and to their distress there
was waler in their Camper up
to the windshicld level,’? he
said,

“The tide had come up and
they didn’t realize it was tidal

| water.’?

~ ‘Their dog managed to escape
the rising waters by standing

“| on the camper’s table.

*. The couple signalled
motorists on the highway, who
tadioed town for help.

The truck was pulled out by
tow truck after the tide had
receded,

Tax incentive
to be probed

KITIMAT-STIKINE regional

| district director Dave Brock-

lebank wants to give Pac-Rim
LNG extra incentive to build in

‘Kitimat,

Pac-Rim has proposed con-
struction of a 500 cubic million
foot per day liquified natural
gas plant in the northwesi, It is
Jooking at two sites in Kitimat
and one in Prince Rupert.

At last Saturday’s board
meeting, Brocklebank asked if
it was possible for the regional
district to offer tax incentives
to encourage selection of

“Kitimat.

Administrator Bob Marcellin
sald he was not aware of
regional dislricts having that
sort of power, but would look
into it

Mine finds confounded
by gov't rules and regs

HALF THE 20 major mines in
B.C. are expected to reach the
end of their productive lives in
the next 10 years, says Cominco
financial analysis manager Greg
Waller.

That will mean another round
of job losses in the industry un-
less new mines come on stream to
replace those jobs.

But there can’t be any new
mines without exploration, Wal-
ler explained at last week's cham-
ber of commerce luncheon.

Given the time it takes to find
an ore deposit, prove it out, and
develop a mine, he warned that
exploration would have to happen
now if replacement employment
was to be available.

But il won’t unless the provin-
cial and federal governments send
a signal that persuades people
they are interested in sustaining
the industry in Canada and B.C,

To underline the seriousness of

the current situation, Waller pro-
duced statistics illustrating the
decline of mining:

a 6,000 direct jobs lost in B.C.
in the period 1989-1993;

Snip ore

w net loss of 20 mines and
6,500 jobs across Canada in
1992-93 alone;

a investment in mining in
Canada cut by half since 1981;

m only one Jarge mine devel-
oped in Canada in the last nine
years compared to seven in Chile;

He blamed that decline on a
combination of “‘global pull and
national push’’,

The pull resulted from countries
with suitable geology in Latin
America and South East Asia
achieving economic and political
stabilily, thus becoming more at-
tractive to investors.

At the same time, Canada was
pushing investors away with high
taxes, non-profit charges, the
complexity and delays in the
permitting system and reducing
access to land.

He also said the Tatshenshini-
Alsek decision had probably had
more effect on investment here
than anything else in the past five
years.

bound

for Stewart mill

COMINCO HAS signed a two-
year contract to keep shipping
gold concentrate from its Snip
mine in the Iskut Valley for pro-
cessing at the Premier mill in
Stewart.

The contract follows a one-year
test in which a barge of con-
cenlrate is sent once a month by
sea from the mine to Stewart,

“We knew it was going very
well within the first couple of
shipmeals,’’ Snip manager Mer-
lyn Royea said last week.

“We were getting the kind of
recovery we wanted and they
were gelting the kind of
economies they wanted.”

Snip, in its fourth year of opera-

tion, bad been shipping con-
centrate to Japan.

The concentrate is now sent
from the Snip mine on the Iskut
River to the river mouth at
Wrangell, Alaska.

From there a Prince Rupert tug
conpany moves the barge to
dockside at Stewart where it’s
trucked to the Premier mill.

Royea said sending the con-
centrale to Stewart makes foi a
faster delivery time and is less ex-
pensive than shipping overseas,

Westmin’s processing of the ore
at ils Premier mill continues ecf-
forts to keep that facility busy.

That mill opened five years ago
but operations were soon scaled
down because an accompanying
ore bedy failed to mecl expecta-
tions.

Since then Westmin has been
on the search for customers for its
mill,

kkk kk

Cominco will spend $750,000
this year in hopes of finding more
ore at its Snip site. :

Mine manager Merlyn Royea

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said two areas will be explored,
one of which is adjacent to the
mine at Johnny Mountain,

That’s a joint venture with that
property's owners, International
Skyline Gold Corporation.

The Snip mine has about three
and half years worth of ore left
and new finds are needed to keep
it in operation,

‘We're getting to the point
where we need to find something
very quickly,” said Royea,

He said it can take a year or two
to develop an ore body, including
regulatory approval, once dis-
covered.

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SHEEMCM Tcl Ihe

Waller maintained the industry
didn't have a problem with the
ctcation of a park, but with the
lack of compensation for the min-
ing companies affected by the
“‘expropriation’’.

While conceding the govern-
ment had said it would pay com-
pensation, nothing had material.
ized yet, he said. .

It was the same story with the
pemnitting process where both the
federal and provincial govern-
ments had recognized the need
for streamlining but that was as
far as it had gone.

Reminding those attending the
luncheon he had placed postcards
addressed to Prime Minister Jean
Chretien on all tables, Waller
urged those at the luncheon to
show their support for mining by
sending them off.

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