The municipality of St. Mary's has hosted 4 community meetings with approximately 300 people in attendance. The overwhelming consensus was NOPE! Our community has spoken and although very much a symbolic win it has impact.
Thank you all so much for your efforts.
Now we focus on the Province and then solid responses to the Federal Assessment public comment period once Atlantic Gold submits their Environmental Impact Statement. AG indicated late summer early fall for this submission to the Federal Government.
Consider these points below specifically 3, 7 and 8
1) Looking back at the last gold mining in the area, and the whole province, things consistently weren’t left in a good way. Did we learn anything? Obviously not if we are talking about a massive mine and tailings pond next to the river.
Goldenville has toxic and exposed tailings that occupy an area of 34 hectares. Years after the mine closed, site testing ended up still showing extremely dangerous levels of Arsenic, and the government had to shut the area down for safety reasons as a result. It is too poisonous to go there after all these years, and that won’t be changing anytime soon.
2) We can’t count on adequate environmental compliance and monitoring, both during this project and for the hundreds of years the massive tailings ponds need to keep the toxic materials contained.
Why can’t we? Because the Nova Scotia Provincial Auditor General Michael Pickup’s report in 2017 indicated a failure in the government monitoring and enforcement of industrial projects to ensure they comply with their environmental terms.
Not to mention, Atlantic Gold’s project description summary (page 17) states “...two years will be needed to complete regrade and re-vegetation of the site, after which monitoring will continue until deemed no longer necessary – typically two to three years post-reclamation”. What about the next couple hundred years of the tailings leeching or outright spilling like in Brazil or BC?
Let’s face it, they want to get the gold and get out, and leave a mess for our kids or grandkids to clean up at great expense.
3) How has Atlantic Gold interacted with public stakeholders at its other operations in the Province? They will probably treat us the same way they treat others. To quote recent local news articles on this topic:
A complainant named Wayne Oakley challenged the expropriation of his property for Atlantic Gold. “In its decision on his case in February 2018, the UARB noted that this was the very first time that a person’s entire property and home was expropriated in Nova Scotia. It ordered Atlantic Gold to pay Oakley $350,750, of which $305,000 was the agreed market value of the property and $47,450 compensation for the disturbance he had suffered. Atlantic Gold didn’t accept the UARB decision; on April 10, 2018 it appealed it to the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal”.
4) How much will taxpayers need to pay to fix Highway 7, and how will all this affect those who live and use that road? One quote says around $50 million.
The use directly related to this project alone will probably necessitate resurfacing of the highway, which is a taxpayer liability. For reference, wear and tear from one 18-wheeler is equivalent to that from 9,800 cars.
The project description summary states “8-axle 58,500kg C-Train Double Haulers” will be used. These are large, custom, tractor trailers that also have an additional large dolly trailer in tow. Do the stakeholders (property owners and businesses) along the “haul route” understand what is being proposed here?
Also, Atlantic gold indicated (pg16) that they intend to apply to NSTIR for exemptions to the current weight restrictions on two sections, at Mooseland Rd, and for 51km of Highway 7. If there is a weight limit to keep the road intact, and the intention is to run their regular daily trucks over this route for 7 years continuously, but not pay for resurfacing, then why would an exemption be considered or approved by taxpayers?
5) They conveniently leave out the explosives part. Those who live near the mine should think about this one. How much explosives will be needed to carve out this massive project?
If we assume 0.5 lb to 1 lb of explosives (ie dynamite) used per tonne rock mined, and we are mining 43 million tonnes of rock, we are looking at 20-40 million pounds (10,000-20,000 tonnes) of explosives that need to be shipped to the Cochrane Hill mine site, and then exploded over the course of the operations.
The project description has one line indicating explosives are subcontracted out, without further detail. I wonder why they left this one out, seems like it could be a big deal.
What is the risk related to shipping, storing, and using all this explosive? How disruptive will this be? How much explosive is this, it sounds like a lot?
The Hiroshima nuclear bomb is equal to 15,000 tonnes of TNT, which is roughly comparable to the amount of explosive going into Cochrane hill, by these estimates.
6) Besides blasting a nuclear-bomb-quantity of explosives over 7 years, how disruptive to local residents will it actually be, to excavate, crush, and then process 43 million tonnes of rock over 7 years, which works out to 22,000 tonnes of rock per day?
It appears the mine will operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Is this correct?
Local residents within 5km of Cochrane Hill are generally aware the new nearby quarry operations, which are easily heard during operation and arguably do disrupt the peacefulness of the river valley.
How will the noise compare from this mining operation, which is many magnitudes of scale larger, operating 7 days a week, blasting and crushing and diesel powered hammer drills and shipping with massive tandem trucks. Doesn’t sound like the tranquil St. Marys River we know now. Or how about those nice trout lakes they are going to drain for the operation. We can tell our grandkids how we once had good trout fishing days there before the mine came
7) So you all know that Atlantic Gold is not actually based here, right?
“Australia-based Atlantic Gold has entered into an agreement to merge with natural resource company, Spur Ventures, which is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada. Under the terms of the agreement, Spur Ventures will acquire all shares of Atlantic for $30.2m by way of a scheme of arrangement. The merger will pave the way to fund the development of Atlantic’s Touquoy Gold project in Nova Scotia, Canada”
8) How much should we trust this company to do good by us? They aren’t from here; their executives have questionable backgrounds, and the document they gave us are full of questionable aspects. Do your own google searches, you will find some concerning info.
Maryse Belanger - President, Chief Operating Officer & Director, Atlantic Gold
Atlantic gold website: “She was most recently the CEO and Managing Director of Mirabela Nickel Ltd. where she has been responsible for the turnaround and cost cutting success at that company's Santa Rita mine in Brazil”
Subsequent Google search for Maryse Belanger and Mirabela Nickel Ltd:
“Mirabela has closed its Perth head office and laid off all its staff, with the exception of the CEO Maryse Belanger, who was based in Brazil and who had resigned from her position last week” (2016)
“Mirabela Mineração (MMB) has terminated the employment of around 220 employees and 180 contractors at the Santa Rita mine in Brazil”
“Mirabela enters liquidation as Santa Rita fails to attract bid” 15-June-2016
Steven Dean - Chairman, Chief Executive Officer & Director, Atlantic Gold
Atlantic Gold Website: “He has extensive experience internationally in mining, including as President of Teck… and Co-founder of PacMin Mining Corporation which became a subsidiary of Teck Corporation in 1999”
The Tarmoola Gold Mine in Australia was taken over jointly by Camelot and Teck Corporation. Camelot was renamed Pacmin Mining in June 1998 and took control of all assets of the two companies in Australia. Pacmin was then taken over by Sons of Gwalia in 2001. In February 2004, a large pit wall failure caused disruptions to the mine, leading to closure in September. In a landmark legal decision, some late-arriving shareholders of Sons of Gwalia were awarded the same status as creditors because the company breached continuous disclosure obligations or misled them about its financial status. Sons of Gwalia was labelled in a media story around the time as one of “Western Australia’s most hated companies”.
Teck Cominco: On May 17, 2006, it was announced that four people died in an accident at a decommissioned mine.
“Prior to joining Teck, Mr. Dean was a founding member of management of the Normandy Poseidon Group, (which became Normandy Mining) until its acquisition by Newmont Mining in 2002”
Newmont Mining operated the Yabacocha gold mine in Peru, where it became a site of conflict with local farmers and villagers opposed to the operation, and things got so bad it became the focus of New York Times article published on June 14, 2010, and documentary series, very critical of the whole operation.
Normandy Mining has roots with the Poseidon company. In 1974, The Rae Committee in Australia handed down its report on the “Poseidon bubble”, in which it documented numerous cases of Poseidon’s improper trade practices. It recommended a number of changes to the regulation of stock markets, which ultimately led to Australia's national companies and securities legislation.
Normandy mining also was the site of a mining disaster in Western Australia, where several miners were trapped and killed, and where there was a series of known safety problems. A coroner’s inquest into the Grubb case apparently noted that “mine supervisors and managers knew about breaches of basic safety procedures but did not stop them”.
“He was also a co-founder and former chairman of Amerigo Resources Ltd. Mr. Dean is the former Chairman and a director of Sierra Metals Inc.
Sierra Metals: A quote from Thomas Robyn, VP of Exploration, as published by northernminer.com: “We broke the rule book, we did it the way the old boys did it,” Robyn says of Sierra’s method of getting to production first and proving up resources later. It’s a theme that ripples through the company, emphasizing a drive to get the cash first and sort out the academic details later