Teck plans an expansion to Line Creek operations

1 of 6To celebrate one of the province’s largest and oldest industry activities, Teck and the Sparwood Chamber of Commerce, hosted free mine tours. — Brielle Will photo

2 of 6 — Brielle Will photo

3 of 6 — Brielle Will photo

4 of 6 — Brielle Will photo

5 of 6 — Brielle Will photo

6 of 6 — Brielle Will photo

Teck held an open house in February at the Sparwood Causeway Bay Hotel to announce that environmental assessment is underway for its Phase II expansion project at Line Creek mine.

Teck has proposed to develop two new operating areas, Burnt Ridge North and Mount Michael, which are adjacent to existing Line Creek operations. These areas are estimated to contain a combined 59 million tonnes of clean coal and would extend the life of the mine by about 18 years, to 2032.

Project assessment director Karen Christie provided an overview of the provincial environmental assessment process.

“An EA is about determining what the future effects would be from proposed actions of a project,” said Christie. “We look at the environment, economics, health, heritage and social effects of this mine expansion. It is all about good decision making.”

Teck is now well into the process, with about 100 days left for review. There are an additional 45 days before provincial ministers are required to make a decision on the project in mid-August.

Presenters at the public meeting included Line Creek general manager Don Sander, director of communications Nic Milligan, superintendent Lyle Douglas and EA spokesperson Sarah Lancaster.

“It maintains the current employee rate of 486 for another 18 years,” said Douglas. He added that although the project is in a new area, many of the structures already in place will continue to be utilized.

“The entire project is designed around maintaining the infrastructure and keeping the processing plant with coal for another 18 years,” said Douglas. “The rail and load-out facilities which have been there for the past 29 years are still being used.”

Existing office buildings, main power distribution and the coal storage areas will also be maintained for use.

“The valley is a relatively unique situation, where Teck has a number of operations in the same watershed," said Lancaster. "We are not looking at the project in complete isolation. An example of focus in our detailed assessment might be species like bighorn sheep or westlope cutthroat trout.”

According to Lancaster, the overall result of the EA, ongoing since 2009, is the project can be undertaken without significant adverse effects to the biophysical aspects of economics, social, heritage, health and environment.

The only significant effect yet to be identified was associated with future mine closure and the potential for job loss, she added.

Line Creek, located roughly 20 kilometres northeast of Sparwood, employs 486 people, 22 per cent of whom live in Sparwood. Another seven per cent are located in Elkford, 25 per cent commute from Fernie and about 16 per cent reside in the Crowsnest Pass.

One of the main outputs of the project includes the selenium management process and selenium water treatment plant, representing an effort to reduce the buildup of that naturally-occurring chemical in the Elk River, said Milligan.