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Thursday, August 1, 2013 ◆ Volume 26 No. 61
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Ajax rejects calls for blast test
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By Andrea Klassen STAFF REPORTER andrea@kamloopsthisweek.com
NOW THAT’S CONCENTRATION Graeme Lamperson, 12, shows he has a good aptitude for tennis (a newly acquirred hobby) as he plays a match against his father, Ron, on Wednesday morning, July 31, at the Charles Anderson tennis courts. The Parksville native was in Kamloops visiting his grandmother after attending a week-long hockey camp in Kelowna. Dave Eagles/KTW
OAKLEY
The city can ask but, unless a request for a full-scale test blast at the Ajax mine site comes from the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) or one of the provincial ministries, it’s not going to happen. On Wednesday, July 31, Mayor Peter Milobar headed to Victoria to bring Environment Minister Mary Polak and Minister of Energy and Mines Bill Bennett up to speed on community concerns surrounding the mine proposed south of Aberdeen. Asking the province to require a full-scale demonstration of the blasting that will occur at least once a day was at the top of his list. “It can’t hurt to ask,” he told KTW in advance of the trip. “The worst they can do is say no. They have before.” The mine has conducted a small test blast and is using that data to model the vibrations, noise and other effects that could be produced by a full-sized blast. Calls from the city, as well as the Kamloops Area Preservation Association, for a larger test have yet to produce results.
There are things that they’re asking that we think are not necessary.
Milobar said he’s been told another test blast would be too expensive. KGHM Ajax’s external affairs manager Yves Lacasse said the test isn’t necessary for any of the company’s studies it is conducting for its provincial environmental review. “There’s no issues. We don’t have any issues,” he said. “We have presented application information requirements to the government which have been approved. “This is what we have to report on.” He said the mine’s blasting studies have already undergone more reviews than is typical for a project of this type in British Columbia. “Our reports have been reviewed by senior experts at Natural Resources Canada and an independent profes-
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sor from McMaster University and they all agree there is no need for a full-scale blast test to determine the blasting effects,” he said. A request from the city alone isn’t enough reason for KGHM to create a full-sized blast. “Since joining this project I’ve gone out of my way to make sure that I responded to the city. That’s not going to change,” Lacasse said. “However, there are things that they’re asking that we think are not necessary.” Lacasse said the EAO or a minister would have to change the scope of the mine’s application information requirements to require another blast test. “If Peter [Milobar] talks to ministers and somehow things get changed along the way, then we will work with the government at the time,” he said.
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