Contents from a tailings pond is pictured going down the Hazeltine Creek into Quesnel Lake near the town of Likely, B.C. Tuesday, August, 5, 2014.
Image Credit: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward
August 13, 2014 - 8:26 AM
CHASE, - A First Nations band in British Columbia has issued an eviction notice to the company that owns the Mount Polley tailings pond, which spilled millions of cubic metres of waste in the Cariboo region.
The Neskonlith are urging Imperial Metals Corp. (TSX:III) to leave their land, which is in the Thompson Okanagan region, about 48 kilometres east of Kamloops near the village of Chase.
Imperial Metals is surveying a 211-square-kilometre area for zinc and lead for a project called the Ruddock Creek mine, which is unrelated to the Mount Polley mine.
The band issued a statement saying the group will not permit any mining development that would contaminate water or destroy salmon habitat, as elders do not want the area poisoned.
The band says it opposes the Ruddock Creek Mine because Imperial Metals failed to protect First Nations land when the Mount Polley tailings pond breached.
Imperial Metals did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Neskonlith was not directly affected by the Mount Polley breach, but it is one of 17 bands that form the Secwepemc (She-whep-m) First Nation, some of which were affected by the accident.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2014