THIS LAND IS WHOSE LAND?: There is no easy solution to the problem

It wasn’t the type of crowd Monte Hummel was used to addressing. Gamely, the president of the World Wildlife Fund stood before the annual convention of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) and said he wanted more of Canada protected from prospectors and developers of mines. Hummel, a kinder, gentler version of the more hostile breed of environmentalist that stalks the mining industry today, was speaking at the conference’s keynote open forum on exploration, development and the environment. Naturally, the applause for Hummel was not deafening. Yet, hand it to the prospectors — they did applaud. In reality, the mere presence of an environmentalist at the conference signals a change in the industry’s attitude. It appears the mining companies are resolutely facing up to the fact they can ill afford to ignore the call of the wild in the green ’90s.

There once was a time when prospectors roamed the wilds at will, coming across a trapper here or there, maybe a faller and his logging crew, but few other souls and fewer still legal restrictions to hamper his search. Paradise lost. Today, there is a 3-way tug of war for land. Conservationists demand more parks and preserves, natives want vast areas to call their own and the miners and their resource brothers watch as potentially valuable properties are locked tantalizingly out of reach. It’s a problem the PDAC takes seriously. Not only did it make land use the key session of the convention, but it also set up the Mining Industry Land Use Strategy (MILUS) committee to investigate the issue.

The PDAC estimates that exploration is prohibited or severely restricted on as much as 10% of Canadian land, an area almost as large as Manitoba and Saskatchewan combined. About 6% is in the form of parks and preserves and Hummel and the World Wildlife Fund want this figure to double to 12%. That’s the amount that the 1987 United Nations Brundtland Report recommended that all nations set aside free of development.

Legal Limbo

More frustrating for explorationists is the land that sits in a sort of legal limbo, with no legislation prohibiting exploration but with no guarantee of mineral rights either. Much of this land is covered by native land claims (see separate story, page b b ). Unwinding the red tape could take years and there’s no end in sight. It’s situations like this that MILUS and its chairman, Jack Garnett, want resolved.

“The problem with land that is frozen,” says Garnett, “is that before beginning exploration, the company has to know whether it will be able to mine an orebody when one is found. There’s some question as to what the rules will be on these lands, and defining the rules takes a long time. Since there is no definite time frame (for resolving the issue), the industry sees this as a prolonged problem with no end in sight.”

Both sides agree that only discussion and compromise will prevent parks from being established in areas of high mineral potential. Monte Hummel’s appearance before the PDAC is evidence of that commitment. “Let’s not assume we’re enemies,” he told the convention, urging the two sides to sit down and “compare maps” of mineral reserves and prospective parks. “Let’s try to avoid trouble whenever possible. And let’s keep talking.”

But there are obvious problems from the industry’s point of view. A company can only be expected to keep land free from mineral development if it has already done the initial exploration work that would prove there is no potential for finding an orebody. Furthermore, a company may be unable to discuss its interests without tipping its hand to competitors. And what if technological developments or changes in metal prices render economic a once-worthless deposit in park land? “We (the mining industry) are only as smart as the conventional geological wisdom and the resources used in the initial investigation,” says Garnett. “Most mines enjoyed several stages of exploration before being developed into the operations they are today.”

These problems can be largely resolved, according to the mining industry, if park boundaries are kept flexible so that potentially valuable deposits won’t be locked up forever. “It seems man-made boundaries are apparently irrevocable once you’ve established them,” says Orville Leigh, exploration manager for Battle Mountain and the PDAC’s spokesman on land use. “There has to be more compromise on both sides. A park boundary, once it is established, doesn’t have to be in the same place for all time.”

Proving the Commitment

Before certain lands can be unlocked for exploration, the industry must prove its commitment to environmental protection by continuing to adopt operating methods that pose a low risk to air, waterways, wildlife, and so on. Some of these methods merely entail common sense — cleaning up exploration sites, disposing of garbage properly, minimizing tree cutting, and using existing roads and trails whenever possible. Others, such as sophisticated new airborne surveys, are more ingenious.

Most importantly, companies must demonstrate they can operate in sensitive areas with a minimum of disruption. That means atoning for some past sins. “Mining exploration and development often took place in remote areas,” says Orville Leigh, “and when the companies finished they just walked away. Over 75 years, you build up a reputation for leaving a mess behind.”

Some of the most strictly monitored mines are the handful that are already operating in parks. The future of mining in and around parks may rest with the success or failure of these operations in meeting environmental guidelines.

Hudson Bay Mining & Smelting’s (HBM&S) Spruce Point base metals mine perches on the shore of Reed Lake in Manitoba’s Grass River Provincial Park. The park is designated as multiple use, with loggers and miners sharing the park alongside cottagers and canoeists. Grass River sits in the middle of the Flin Flon-Snow Lake volcanic belt and is a prime mineral exploration area. Yet although regulations are more stringent here than in areas outside the park, they haven’t hindered mine developers.

“We face extra environmental restrictions, but they’re reasonable and we’re happy with them,” says Ted Baumgartner, chief exploration geologist for HBM&S. “It costs us more to operate in the park but not so much that we can’t work.” To work in the park a company must obtain a regular and a special permit from the Manitoba Dept. of Natural Resources. Each year the ministry issues 40 to 50 such permits for the park, about a quarter of which involve drilling. Work sites are checked carefully by ministry officers and fines are imposed for infractions. Some of the permits have been on crown land leased to cottagers and extra restrictions were put in place: no blazing, flagging tape is used instead of linecutting, and witness posts are made as unobtrusive as possible. “We’ve had really good success with this (multi-use policy),” says Bob Huck, the regional superintendent for the Manitoba Dept. of Natural Resources.

The Spruce Point mine is a small operation of fewer than 10 hectares that has been operating in the park since the early 1980s. Both the government and HBM&S extensively surveyed the water of Reed Lake and found no measurable effect from the mine. An on-site filtration plant treats sewage and groundwater from the mine and then pumps the treated water through a pipeline to a swamp more than a kilometre away from the lake. Warm water from cooling systems is also pumped to the swamp to prevent thermal pollution from entering Reed Lake. When the mine closes in another two or three years, HBM&S will remove all the buildings and foundations, truck in top soil if necessary and reseed the area.

Changing Regulations

But even the best efforts of the industry may not be enough to keep mines operating in parks. The Manitoba government is planning a new environmental policy similar to the strict Ontario Municipal/Industrial Strategy for Abatement.

“Multi-use has been a success up to this point,” says Huck. “To start another mine in the park might be another matter. With the new environmental policy and all the pitfalls and the hoops you’ll have to jump through, I’m sure it (getting approval to construct another mine) would be a longer process than for Spruce Point.”

Exploration also occurs in Clearwater Provincial Park, south of Grass River. Environmentalists aren’t happy that companies are working so near to the pristine lake. “You can imagine the calls we get when tourists see a drill rig out there,” says Huck.

Westmin Resources knows how loud that outcry can become. Strathcona Provincial Park on Vancouver Island contains spectacular west coast wilderness in its 200,000 hectares. Its waters are the source of the drinking water for the city of Campbell River, downstream. Strathcona Park is also home to Westmin’s Myra Falls copper- zinc-lead mine at Buttle Lake, which has been the focus of environmental protests.

Art Soregaroli, Westmin’s vice-president of exploration, knows the environmentalists’ concerns can’t be dismissed. Accordingly, the ground water from the mine is recycled, treated and neutralized before it reaches Buttle Lake.

“Myra Falls has been very successful at cleaning up some of the earlier problems that were developed around the area,” says Soregaroli. “Now we’ve got pristine water going down the creek and into the lake. It’s good stuff.”

Safe Shutdowns

But waste water from the mine is just one of the concerns of the Friends of Strathcona Park, a society dedicated to preserving the park’s natural beauty. John Wilson, a geologist and a member of the society, says his chief concern is the long-term effect of the mine tailings.

“Another concern is what happens after the mine shuts down. Even though engineers think they’ve solved the problem of shutting down an acid mine, we haven’t really seen it happen yet. There are many historical sites that have been capped or blended with different buffering agents and failed. Now we’re being told, `Trust us again, we’ve got it licked.”‘

Although the mine itself takes up a small area of the park, Wilson says its influence is far-reaching. The continual drone from the ventilation fans echoes for tens of miles in the surrounding alpine valleys and the mine’s burgeoning need for electric power means that several small rivers will be dammed for hydro electric plants.

Westmin is working hard to overcome these problems. Art Soregaroli says being patient with the concerns of environmentalists is the first step toward finding a solution. “Many of us got involved in geology because we were interested in the environment. Because of our love of the outdoors, we’re very conscious of the need to protect the land. Unfortunately, the two sides (conservationists and the mining industry) got into a situation that was confrontational and unco-operative.

Public education is vital if mining’s poor reputation as an environmental protector is to be reversed. An early goal of the MILUS committee is to record and publish the industry’s environmental successes. And despite the improvements, there’s more work to be done. There is still no reliable way of closing acid mines safely without having to monitor and treat tailings continuously. Smelters still pollute the air and contribute to acid rain. Some careless exploration crews still plow through the bush, needlessly cutting trees and scarring the landscape.

Continued access to mineral resources requires the industry to prove that it can walk softly in the wilderness. The mining industry must clean up its own act voluntarily, or face continued pressure from conservation groups and even stricter government regulations.