KGHM Ajax Mining Inc. external affairs manager Yves Lacasse.

(JENNIFER STAHN / iNFOnews.ca)

ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT SUBMISSION DELAYED

KAMLOOPS – KGHM Ajax Mining Inc. revealed the environmental assessment for the proposed mine has been pushed back at least seven months and the pit could become even bigger than initially thought after additional ore bodies have been found.

Dan Ferriter, vice president environmental, was on hand this morning to discuss the potential ore bodies and what it could mean for the Ajax mine.

“We think it could make it more lucrative, it could add more reserves,” Ferriter says about the discovery. “We also want to see if there's opportunities to move facilities further away from the community.”

Though he cannot provide details on what facilities could possibly be moved and how far just yet, Ferriter and external affairs manager Yves Lacasse both say the experts are looking at the mine plan and will assess the best possible solution.

“What we are looking at right now... any possibilities that we can optimize the distance between our facilities and the community,” Lacasse says. “We have heard the community and we see this as an opportunity.”

While the option to move the facilities further away is a possibility, Ferriter and Lacasse both say there is no plan to relocate the pit itself as 'the ore is where the ore is at.'

“They're adjacent to the pit.... We could potentially be looking at a bigger pit.” Ferriter says of the potential new deposit location. “We're evaluating inside of our current project footprint.... It's actually a  requirement you understand where the minerals are located and where they are not located.”

Because the company is investigating these new ore findings and the possibility of moving some of the facilities further from the city, the environmental assessment submission is at least seven months away, Ferriter says, but notes the required draft document has a 'three year shelf life.'

Though the assessment is being delayed to sometime in 2014, Lacasse says a series of public information sessions will still be held Sept. 9-12 and will offer information on the project and how the models and assessments are utilized in the process. Experts will also be on hand to answer questions about the air, water and noise/vibration models as well as the human health and ecological risk assessment.

Lacasse agrees they will not be able to provide specific details at the public sessions a month from now, but rather just general information on how the assessments and models are done will be presented. He says the new company website offers a lot more information though and will be updated with project details as they become available.

To contact a reporter for this story, email jstahn@infotelnews.ca, call (250)819-3723 or tweet @JennStahn.

This story was last updated at 12:50 p.m., Aug. 2, 2013.

News from © iNFOnews, 2013