A10 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, May 7, 1997 Mining company sinks barge plan to transport concentrate A MINING COMPANY with a major cop- per/gold property up north says a $30.9 million road would be cheaper to service its property than a barge system down the Taku River, Redfern Resources says a 160km road con- necting its Tulsequah Chief site with Atlin to the north is less complicated and also environ- mentally safer than marshaling a fleet of barges. ‘‘For a number of reasons, the seasonal barge option just isn’t feasible,”’ Redfern official Kel- vin Dushnisky said. Redfern examined barging as one way of moving supplies in and ore concentrate out of its minesite. The company is applying for a provincial pro- ject approval certificate and wants to take the barge option out of its plans. The Taku River runs through British Colum- bia and exits into the Pacific in Alaska. It’s Status as a river deserving of environment pro- ‘ tection has been growing and it is a major sal- mon river for Alaskan commercial fishermen. “The Alaskans weren't that keen on having a barge going down the Taku,”’ said Dushnisky. He said potential financiers Redfern needs for money to develop the project would also shy away from barging, Instead, Dushnisky said spending nearly $31 million to build a private road from off of Hwy7 near Atlin 160k to the minesite makes more Sense, Even the estimated $11 million it would take each year to maintain the road makes it an safer bet than barging, he added. The road would have a manned gate at its Former MP calls mine road A MINING COMPANY with a copper and gold property up north was too quick to abandon the idea of servicing it by barge, says the executive director of an environmental organization. Jim Fulton of the David Suzuki Foundation says the decision by Redfern Resources to apply for road access to its Tulsequah Chief site south of Allin is wrong. “T think they have erred in not doing a proper evaluation of shallow barge, twin-hulled trans- portation for the mine,’’ he said. The 160km road propasal goes through criti- cal wildlife habitat and although Redfern says it will be a controlled road, Fulton’s suspicious of how that will work. **The record of keeping roads private isn’t that good,” he said. ‘‘A road is more than twice as significant as the mine itself on the environ- ment.” Although Fulton and others have described the Taku as an important salmon river, he says the prospect of bazging in supplies and ore out is possible if designed and operated correctly. But Fulton wonders how it can be cheaper to truck ore over the proposed 160km connection to Atlin and then for hundreds of kilometres - more to the coast. ‘And guess what when the trucks get there. The ore goes onto a barge.’’ The Tulsequah Chief property was briefly op- erated in the 1950s by Cominco. A federal study in the mid-1980s found the abandoned site was leaching acid runoff into the Tulsequah River which then flows into the Taku. Fulton says that entrance as it would be a private route managed by Redfern. “There would be access to First Nations people, but this won’t be a public road,'’ said Dushnisky. Redfern says it has enough capper, gold, lead, zine and silver at the site to justify spending $150 million in development costs for a mine life of nine years. ‘During construction there would be 400-odd positions and during operations, 260 full time people,’? said Dushnisky in adding that the jobs will pay an average $75,000 a year. The road is subject to the same level of ap- proval as the minesite itself, If all goes according to plan, Redfern wants to start work at the site early next year 1998, a bad idea should be corrected before any subsequent de- velopment is approved, Kelvin Dushnisky of Redfern says the barge option poses more of an environmental chal- lenge and is too expensive when compared to a road connection. *7’m surprised that Mr. Fulton, who cares about the Taku River, would suggest that a barge be safer when a road wouldn’t go near the river at all,’’ he said, Dushnisky said the amount of acid leaking “into the Tulsequah River and then into the Taku is so negligible it is not a threat. Redfern wants to remove the acid leaching rock from the Cominco days, transport deep into its mine shafts and then flood the space, Group wants study done A PROPOSED gold and copper mine up north has a group from that area worried, The Taku Wilderness As- sociation says it isn’t neces- sarily against the develop- ment — it just wants the ap- proval process slowed down so a proper analysis can be made of the Tulsequah Chief prospect. The mine property is owned by Redfern Resources of Vancouver and is located on the Tulse- quah River in the far north- western comer of the pro- vince, The Tulsequah drains into the Taku River which then flows to the Pacific. One of its members, Don Weir, says the group doesn’t think the area can withstand a possible economic boom and bust scenario without first understanding the im- pacts aad then being ready for them. It also is leery about the prospect of a 160km road leading to the minesite, saying it will lead to other resource development which will also require planning. “We're not against log-. ging, for instance,’ said Weir last week. ‘““We think there is room for smaller- type logging operations. But all of this must be planned,’” The association is pursu- ing what it calls a land pro- tection plan with various governmental bodies. Weir said the proposed Tulsequah mine brings into play a wide variety of fac- tors, including environmen- tal protection and the land claim being pursued by the Taku River Tlingit. “In talking to the Taku River Tlingit I know there’s a question of how caa a de- ‘velopment, be . approved while their claim is oul- standing,”’ he said. Environmental considera- tions, particularly with Red- fern’s plan for a road, ex- tend to grizzly bear habitat. Weir says the association does want, before anything else happens, a resolution to acid leakage into the Tulse- quah dating back to the ear- ly 1950s when Cominco op- erated a mine there briefly. An art auction in March in Vancouver featured donated works by a variety of artists, including David Comfort, Wally Humphrey and Dionys DeLeeuw from this area, Proceeds went to the association. . Weir, who is also an artist, will give a slide show May 14 at 7 p.m. at the Terrace Don Weir Art Gallery. The next night he'll be at Java’s in Smithers. An art auction is also planned, +] with the best donce music in TERRACE INN [cRAzy YOONEY | SUNDAYS AT GIGI’S 12am -12 p.m. town starting at 6:00 p.m. SISNS PUB The Best Cntertalnment Piva WHighthy From Louisiana ‘Daily 8: Nightivilt _ DANCE EXPRESS ‘Every Friday & Wednesday DANCE NITE _ SHADES _. Pie eveaolaroid comera Augies Lounge thi : Sat ODESSEY | Augies Lounge Saturday “Jam. 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