A mining company in the Cariboo has been fined $276,360 for non-compliance with its waste water discharge permit.
Between April 2021 and November 2022, Barkerville Gold Mines (BGM) Ltd.’s Bonanza Ledge Mine near Wells, B.C., released effluent from the sediment control pond into Lowhee Creek containing high levels of Arsenic, Cadmium, Cobalt, Copper, Iron, Nickel, Nitrite, Nitrate, Sulphate, Zinc, and total suspended solids.
The company failed to comply with the authorized discharge and contingency plans of its permit, wrote Jason Bourgeois, compliance section head with the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy in a notice of penalty under the Environmental Management Act, dated March 4, 2024.
For 68 dates of contravention or failure during that time period there were 417 separate exceedances and non-compliance, he noted.
BGM has been mining at Bonanza Ledge Mine since 2014. Osisko Development Corp. acquired it in 2020.
A spokesperson for Osisko said the company plans to pay the administrative penalty, adding the non-compliance relates to historic issues associated with the site.
Since buying BGM, Osisko said it has taken steps to address the non-compliance by designing, constructing and commissioning a $2M-plus state-of-the art water treatment facility, improving site water management practices and environmental monitoring and reporting.
“We continue to take measures to improve our performance,” the spokesperson noted.
“As a company with a strong track record of environmental stewardship, ODV always aims to set a higher standard and has taken necessary steps to remain in compliance with provincial regulations since taking control of the site.”
First issued in 2005, the mine’s discharge permit was amended in 2017 to authorize discharge from the mine into Lowhee Creek and Stouts Gulch Creek.
A ministry inspection report issued on May 25, 2022 stated BGM was out of compliance with its permit amendment and cited the 417 exceedances during 2021 to 2022.
The report also found BGM out of compliance for failing to submit an updated contingency plan.
Following up on April 12, 2023, the ministry recommended a $720,000 fine for failure to comply with the 2017 authorize to discharge permit and a $40,000 fine for the failure to submit a contingency plan. Later the penalty was increased to $1,375,000 to take into account the economic benefit of failing to install the nitrate treatment system and operate it for two years, as well as failing to commission a water treatment facility until October 2020.
BGM was permitted to submit a response, and on Nov. 6, 2023, did so, attaching 10,723 pages of reference materials.
Bourgeois described the submission as “very thorough and well organized” and said BGM should be commended.
In its submission, BGM argued during the COVID-19 pandemic there were challenges due to business and worksite closures, mandatory work from home and isolation orders that impacted its ability to comply with the permits.
Bourgeois decided not to fine the company for the dates it was out of compliance during the state of emergency, however, cited examples where some of the greatest exceedances - 329 per cent for nitrite on Nov. 29, 2021, 111 per cent for nitrate on Nov. 1, 2021 and 44 per cent sulphate on Oct. 25, 2021 - were all after the province’s state of emergency ended.
Cariboo Regional District Area C (Barkerville, Bowron Lakes, Barlow Creek) director John Massier described the Bonanza Ledge Mine as a legacy mine site, which has been there for 90 years.
“I’m not surprised there were issues,” Massier said. “It’s good the Ministry of Mines is on top of it and holding large companies to task on this, I think that’s an improvement. But in the grand scheme of things, I think of large mining developments in the Cariboo that we’ve seen I think Osisko’s been doing the best to stay in compliance.”
He said the non-compliances are not indicative of what is happening now in 2024.
“They inherited a mining site where historically things were done differently and not in harmony with the environment,” Massier said. “I think moving forward they will be good corporate citizens and leave the sites they have inherited better environmentally than they were left in the past by other operators.”
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