After a 14-year moratorium, Cream Silver Mines was testing the environmental waters when it started drilling a 5-hole program on its polymetallic deposit in Strathcona Park on Vancouver Island.
The waters turned out to be bubbling hot.
Since drilling started late in January, about 33 environmental protesters have been arrested for trying to stop the drilling.
The Friends of Strathcona, as the environmental group calls itself, are at the drill site daily. Their main concerns are with mining affecting the watershed area and related problems of acid tailings disposal. On site, the situation is not confrontational or disorderly but the protesters are equally as determined to stop the drilling as the company is to continue it.
The first hole is almost complete, having reached 1,700 ft of a planned 2,000-ft depth. The company’s Resource Use permit allows four more holes to be drilled up to the end of June. Approximately $280,000 has been allocated for the program, but delays will likely push costs higher.
On Feb 16, British Columbia’s environment minister, Bruce Strachan, promised delegates from the Friends of Strathcona that the government will order a public inquiry into development in the provincial park. The company says it would welcome such an inquiry.
Cream Silver has held the 166 mineral claims since 1967. In 1973 the ndp government placed a moratorium on industrial development in the park. When the moratorium was lifted in 1987, Cream Silver spent $150,000 on a geophysical survey which identified a string of anomalies on strike with the known orebody on the adjacent Buttle Lake mine of Westmin Resources. The company had planned to test another target area on the property if the initial drill program is successful.
Be the first to comment on "Cream Silver drilling sparks environmental uproar at Strathcona"