QMA proposes “savings plan” for mine closures

The Quebec Mining Association (QMA) introduced its new “environmental evaluation” at its annual meeting staged here recently and also proposed a “savings plan” that would allow mine owners to plan financially for the closing of a mining operation.

The evaluation (in French, “bilan environnemental”) was presented in a colorful 40-page report which includes 20 recommendations aimed at helping the government and mining industry better manage the environment.

“Our environmental evaluation is designed to help the industry get a better grasp of the state of the environment of the mines it operates and to take the necessary steps to comply fully, in the short run, with federal and Quebec environmental regulations and guidelines,” said outgoing QMA president Normand Ouimet in his address to members.

“Each mine has received an environmental assessment report so that it can set up its own program to rectify irregular situations and maintain compliance where it already exists.”

According to the QMA, its members spent more than $60 million in 1990 — excluding work on some major projects such as the new sulphuric acid plant built by Noranda (TSE) at Rouyn-Noranda, Que. — on activities related to the environment. That figure compares with $45 million spent on similar work in 1989 and $11 million spent in 1988.

QMA research also indicates that 2.6 persons are involved in environmental activities at each mining operation within the province.

The proposed Registered Environment Savings Plan (RESP) is a way of recognizing that each mine must have the capital to execute a proper shutdown, said Ouimet, an employee at Noranda’s Horne smelter division.

The QMA, in conjunction with other provincial mining associations and the Mining Association of Canada, has proposed that the government pass legislation requiring each mine to create a private fund to restore its mining site. The RESP is analogous to a RRSP which grows throughout an individual’s lifetime and includes built-in tax advantages, Ouimet said.

“The Quebec government has just adopted this RESP by passing Bill 130, but it still has not accepted that all payments to the restoration fund are advance payments or expenditures that should be considered an expense at the time the money is paid into the fund,” he said. “We must persuade the Quebec and federal finance ministers to be completely fair in this matter.”

The Quebec mining industry produces some 30 different minerals. According to the provincial mines ministry, the total value of mineral production by Quebec producers is estimated to have surpassed $2 billion in 1990.

In the area of politics, Ouimet said the QMA, late last year, submitted a brief in favor of maintaining federalism in Canada to the Belanger-Campeau commission set up by the Quebec government.

The 55th annual meeting of the QMA took place at the Manoir Richelieu, a stately hotel built along the shoreline of the St. Lawrence River downstream from Quebec City. The existing stone building, constructed in 1929 by the then owner Canada Steamship Lines, replaced a wooden hotel built in 1899.

Guest speaker at the opening supper was Quebec’s minister of energy and resources and the province’s vice-premier, Lise Bacon. In a lengthy speech, Bacon touched on numerous issues related to the mining industry, including the environment.

Moving up from vice-president to the QMA presidency was Paul Bedard, who works for LAC Minerals (TSE) at that gold producer’s Bousquet operations.