Editorial Strathcona Park

The battle of Strathcona Park on Vancouver Island appears to be over, at least for now. A report, accepted by the British Columbia cabinet, recommends that there be no new mineral exploraton in the provincial park except on Westmin Resources’ existing mine site.

There were no apparent losers in this skirmish, but as a result of it there will be far fewer winners. The report recommends compensation to Cream Silver Mines, whose exploration activity in the park — with the government’s blessing — brought the issue of land use to a head, so shareholders should recoup what they’ve invested. But the potential to create jobs and generate tax revenue has been lost.

Cream Silver envisaged a major orebody to be mined underground, not by open pit methods. Still, to those who advocate keeping all mine development out of parks, Cream Silver’s activities represented the thin end of the wedge: If this mining activity were to go ahead, what fate awaits the rest of Canada’s natural beauty? Will it all be ravaged through the greed of a few mining entrepreneurs?

That is, of course, preposterous. The more fundamental question that will have to be answered sooner or later is: What effect will this desire to leave our mineral resources untapped have on our way of life?

The park’s value to a few may be enhanced marginally by keeping mining out, but it’s just one more step to pricing Canadian minerals out of the market. That, in the long run, means less for everybody. .N4

** Editorial **

** Environmental politics **

With concerns about the environment destined to play an important role in the imminent federal election, Canada’s mining industry had better be prepared. When it comes to making political hay out of environmental issues, there’s nothing quite as easy as Inco bashing.

Great strides have been made to reduce the amount of damage mining and mineral processing inflicts on the environment. The mistakes of yesterday — committed through ignorance, not through malice or greed — are not being repeated. Nevertheless, it’s tough to make technological advances in smelting and refining glamorous enough to appeal to non-mining people.

That’s why any positive news of the industry’s efforts to “clean up its act” is welcome, and the latest news from the Canada Centre for Mineral and Energy Technology (CANMET) refers to one of those efforts.

Together with the University of British Columbia, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council and Inco, CANMET is conducting research on applying the technique of flash smelting on copper-nickel concentrates.

The method produces sulphur dioxide gas which can be readily captured and converted to sulphuric acid instead of going up into the atmosphere where it eventually would come back to earth as acid rain. The results of the research will let Inco develop an optimum design and operating parameters for its new flash smelting facility in Sudbury.

That kind of co-operation between government, industry and academia is bound to produce results.