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City of Kamloops managers get pay raise through 2018 Page A4
THURSDAY
Thursday, May 29, 2014 X Volume 27 No. 62
Kamloops, B.C., Canada X 30 cents at Newsstands
THIS WEEK
B.C. Lions will return to Tournament Capital for camp in 2015 Page A28 Thompson River Publications Limited Partnership
PICKET-LINE HIGH FIVE
Teachers Jeannette Pleskot (left), Kim Dodgson, Kelsi Butner, Jamelia Easton, Linda Bymoen and Cheryl Zordell receive support from Stuart Wood elementary student Victoria Winters as students pass by teachers’ picket line on Wednesday, May 28. For more on the one-day strike and other news about the labour dispute, turn to page A3. Meanwhile, public support seems to be on the teachers’ side, as the story on page A14 details. Dave Eagles/KTW
Ajax mine footprint to be moved south of city By Cam Fortems STAFF REPORTER
cam@kamloopsthisweek.com
KGHM Ajax has unveiled a new proposal it hopes will change public attitudes toward the proposed copper mine and allow it to begin construction in as little as two years. The reconfigured mine plan involves moving the footprint farther south from the city and includes elimination of a tailings stack in favour of a conventional tailings pond located to the southeast. The tailings pond will cover Goose Lake,
which the company described as a slough that has a maximum depth of one metre. The joint venture between Polish-based KGHM and Vancouver junior partner Abacus Mining & Exploration Corp. is forecasting it can receive approval from the provincial and federal ministers in early 2016, with a target to begin construction in July of that year. Details were made available on Wednesday, May 28, to Kamloops media outlets, including Kamloops This Week, on condition they
would not be released publicly until today (May 29). Company officials said changes are designed to address community concerns, including dust and visual impact. “Most of the changes are a result of listening to the community,” said project manager Warner Uhl, who outlined the reconfigured mine to reporters in a series of meetings. The most significant change will see a tailings pond, a man-made lake, created using waste rock to form an earthen berm and dam.
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An illustration showing old and new configuration of the proposed Ajax copper mine south of Aberdeen. To see this ilustration in more detail, go online to kamloopsthisweek.com.
The tailings pond will move more than five kilometres southeast of the formerly proposed 200-foot tall dry tailings stack conceived under the original plan in 2010.
The plan for the dry tailings stack will be abandoned. “The full height would have been 200 feet,” Uhl said. “The concern with the Coquihalla
[Highway] was if there had been a slide, it would have impacted the Coquihalla.” Elimination of the tailings stack also means the mine will not be visible from the highway. “The biggest advantage with wet [tailings] is we get away from this being close to the
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Coquihalla.” The proposed changes that more tightly pack the operation and its rock dumps and associated facilities will also help address dust concerns, said Uhl and Nicola Barton, KGHM’s environmental-permitting manager. The proposals will now be sent through the harmonized federal-provincial comprehensive environmental assessment. KGHM plans to submit its complete application in March of next year. X See TWO A2
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