TERRACE — One northwest gold mine and one under development will find themselves under the same cor- porate roof if a merger goes through, _ Involved is a share swap bet- ween Homestake Mining Co., which has the controlling in- terest in the Golden Bear Mine west of Dease Lake, and Inter- national Corona, which has the controlling interest in the Eskay Creek property. The swap features approx- imately three Corona common shares for each Homestake one. Analysts generally favour the deal, saying Homestake has the kind of money needed for the Eskay Creek mine which is ex- pected to cost $210 million. A final feasibility study for that project is expected later this year, Hormestake is one of the largest gold producers in the United States and will become © the largest North American gold producer — 1,8 million ounces Overall cost still a worry a year — once the deal goes through. International Corona now produces 600,000 ounces of gold a year. Homestake and International Corona have already approved the deal and it’s expected to be ready in time for a mid-May an- nual general meeting of Homestake. In addition to Eskay Creek, International Corona brings to the. deal. its’-David Bell . and Williams mines in the Hemlo’ ERRACE STANDARDT)} old guys merge area of northern Ontario. For its part Homestake is considered an expert in autoclaving, the type of metallurgical process that'll be used to extract gold at Eskay Creek. This is the second major cor- porate event in the last while to affect the Eskay Creek proper- ty. Just recently International Corona and Placer Dome Inc. reached an agreement whereby the latter will also have an in- terest financing. the property. TERRACE — The city has postponed finalizing its 1992 budget until the provincial government hands down its own budget tomorrow. -Alderman and finance committee chairman Danny Sheridan said the New Democrat government's con- tinual warnings about a shor- tage of money has, created a ‘fear. -of the unknown” among municipalities. _ In. particular, there was concern about the fate of many of the provincial grants City budget put on hold municipalities now receive. Reduction or withdrawal of any of those grants would change the cost to the city of a number of projects which are indlided in the city’s latest draft budget, said Sheridan. He anticipated the city will bring down its budget by the second week of April. For a look at what the city has done so far about the 1992 budget, turn to Page A$. Province raises sewer offer. TERRACE — Victoria is giving with one hand and taking away with the other, That’s the reaction of Bob- sein Crescent residents to municipal affairs minister Robin Blencoe’s final offer of aid for a proposed $5 million sewer system to solve the pro- blem of raw sewage in the dit- ches there. Blencoe has upped the municipal affairs ministry's contribution to 75 per cent of the total cost from 50 per cent. But he’s. also effectively eliminated a $249,000 grant for part of the sewage treatment plant that had already been ap- proved by the environment ministry. The net result is that the an- nual’cdst" to each homeowriel” comes down from more than $1,100 to $718 per year for 20 years. There is also a one-time hookup fee of $1,000 to $1,200. “It will not pass. How are you going to go door to door and convince your neighbours that they should pay way more than anyone else in the province?” Blencoe said Friday the new offer is the most his ministry will be able to put on the table. “T'yve done what I can do,” he said. ‘‘Whatever happens it has to go to referendum. So the people will have a say — yea or nay.’ “T have alot of municipalities with sewer and water problems, and the costs are high,’’ Blencoe said. ‘They're all a priority for me. But this one did rise to the top. There’s no question there’s a valid concern when the cost is $1,100 per household,"’ But the residents say $718 a year isn’t low enough to survive a referendum. ‘It will not pass,’ Bobsein- Queensway Action Committee president Chris Clark says flat- ly. ‘This would make us by far the most expensive sewer system in the province. How are you going to go door to door and convince your neighbours that ‘they should pay way more than anyone else in the province?”’ “We have to get it down below $600 or else a lot of peo- ple won't go for it.” She noted Bobsein residents will have to sell the sewer system plan to the other more than 250 homeowners in the Queensway area who aren’t as badly af- fected as Bobsein. Blencoe has capped the pro- vince’s commitment at 75 per cent by deducting from that total any grants from other ’ ministries such as the "$349,000 from the environment | ministry. Clark and committee vice- president Rick Hawke say they're glad Bleneoe has aban- daned the idea of amalgamation as a solution te the Bobsein sewage crisis. But they point out that environment ministry grant would have put the cost below $600 and improved chances for a referendum. “We have an emergency situation here and they’re shut- ting the door on us,” Hawke says, Now, they say, they’re going to ask the federal government for more money. They said they will approach the federal Department of In- dian Affairs — because the new system would serve the Kitselas Indian reserve on Queensway, as well as the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, because coho fry live in one of the con- taminated ditches along Queensway. Health ministry officials so far haven’t taken any residents to court — for failing to meet cleanup deadlines — since star- ting their crackdown on the raw sewage problem earlier this year. sewage-plagued subdivision. HOMEOWNER David Glesbrecht and his neighbours along Bobsein Crescent are pondering a new offer from the ministry of municipal affairs for grants to help build a sewer system for the Nisga’a ponder future wood use TERRACE The Nisga’a Tribal Council is looking at the costs of bringing in new technology to better use the wood in ils Nass Valley ter- ritory. It’li be doing. so through business connections. made at last week's. Globe °92 en- vironmental trade fair in Van- couver. “We're looking at a more sustainable operation of the forest — lo pull together ex- isting licence holders and other companies,’’ said Matt Moore one of a group of Nisga‘a who manned the tribal council’s booth at the trade fair. The Nisga’a effort is based on a land claims agreement they are negotiating with .Canada and with BC, . From the agreement the Nisga’a will gain control over land and resources. centered in the Nass’ Valley, management say over other.land in the area . and sources . of ‘capital - for economic development. “Our primary concern is that we'll have some form of an agreement in a year or two years from now, The point is that we have to get. ready, prepare for the eventuality when it happens to take: advantage of — the benefits that will flow from the agreement,’* said Moore, “We'll be looking for more value out of the actual resource that we do have, We feel that land claims will be good for B,C, and for the environment in B,C.,,”’ he added. It’s - that kind of environmentally-friendly development which the Nisga’a pursued at last week’s trade fair. “Within the Nass area the ex- isting licence holders can cut 1.2 million cubic metres. But to produce that, they cut 1.8 million cubic metres. The rest is ‘treated as waste,’ said Moore. ‘If. -we. can: bring’ in now treated as waste in time we . Canadian, technology that'll use that fibre. can reduce the cut to a sus- tainable kind of forestry,” he continued, Moore said favourable responses were received from American and Japanese companies. A follow up visit is planned soon with a company in Maple Ridge. “We now have to cost out the capital required — to begin to determine whether it makes sense to retool existing opera- tions or to build new ones,’’ he said, “Our goal is that we have to- be responsible. We have to be sensitive to the environment. We can't run like profit makers to New York,’ Moore said. The .Nisga’a also talked to companies with other types of technology that could be ap- plied in the Nass Valley. Drills find bowl TERRACE — Core drilling at the west of Halliwell has con- firmed the presence of an underground clay ‘‘bowl’', But it will be some time yet before the city has a’ possible solution to basement flooding problems being faced by. neighbourhood homeowners. The bowl traps water flowing into it. This saturates the ground inside the bowl, - in- creases the groundwater‘ level and ultimately causes the flooding. Test drilling was carried out after Halliwell residents ap- peared at a Jan. 13 ‘council’: meeting to complain about the situation, At the time one resident, Judy Tessaro, told aldermen five pumps had been con- tinuously operating in her base- ment for five weeks in an effort to combat the steady inflow of water, Engineering director Stew Christensen said all test holes had hit clay after initially pushing through a layer of sand/gravel. At the north end of Marshal St. and close to Kalum Lake Drive, the clay was only five and half feet below the surface. In front of the Tessaro residence the clay was 17 feet down. Page Turners Miners getting help, Page AQ. Harcourt on industry, Page A10. Music kick off, Page B1, Golf, already? Page C3. Northwest Roundup PRINCE RUPERT ~~ The largest food store in the nor- thwest is now open. Canada Safeway’s 42,000 square foot facillty employs 140 people, up from the 80 in the old 25,000 square foot structure. torn ‘down to provide. more parking. cee The old building will be_ GRANISLE — One Granisle resident says there’s a sense of rellef coming from the closure of the community's copper mine,: “We were expecting it. We knew It was coming ... Well, now we know,” said Claudia Le Clair’ of the Granisle Growth Society, Noranda, the mine's _owner, announced two weeka ago that the nilne will close in . “June. Tel cost 160 people ~,, thelr jobs, ‘SMITHERS — The school district covering Smithers and. Houston faces a $650,000 shortfall this year. It received only a $63,000 increase from the provincial government over what it was given East year, says a school district official. The province is an- ticipating a 1.4 per cent drop in. the district’s school _ population and so reduced its grant accordingly. HAZELTON - A_ baok about the Gitksen and Wet’suwel’en Jand claims irlal is now out, Colonialism on Trial con- tains drawings by cartoonist Don Monet, other artwork, excerpts from the lengthy trial and chapter introduc- tions by Gitksan official ‘Are dythe V Wilson. :