The SkeenaWild Conservation Trust is off to BC Supreme Court in order to challenge a decision made by the Environmental Assessment Office, saying that the proposed Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell is substantially started.
SkeenaWild said the decision was made through an environmental assessment process that’s over a decade out of date and that the proposed mine is a threat to both the Nass and Unuk rivers, which are said to act as lifelines for pacific salmon and eulachon.
Canada’s largest environmental law clarity office, Ecojustice, is representing SkeenaWild in this case and they’ve put forth the argument that the project can’t be substantially started since the Environmental Assessment Office considered irrelevant information in their assessment and that the mining company has completed minimal physical work.
Some of the given reasons for the project getting the green light by the Environmental Assessment Office include the physical components of the project being built in 2014, the creation of a 17 kilometre access road leading to the processing and tailings management area and KSMCo spending an estimated $444 Million on parts of the project along with negotiating Impact Benefit Agreements with both the Tahltan and Nisga’a First Nations.
This case could end up affecting how substantial start decisions for similar projects in the future are made.