‘No pressure’ on land owners to sell for proposed Ajax tailings pond, says Lacasse
Living-room view from Antoniak home will become
tailings pond under Ajax plan.
By MEL ROTHENBURGER
NEWS/ AJAX — Two landowners whose homes will become part of the Ajax copper mine’s tailings pond were under no pressure to sell, says KGHM International external affairs minister Yves Lacasse.
The home and all 163 acres of ranch land owned for 21 years by Richard and Sharon Antoniak have been purchased by the mining company, which has also acquired roughly three quarter-sections —about 480 acres — from lifelong rancher George Little.
If Ajax is approved, the tailings pond will cover as much as 600 hectares of ranch land extending south from Jacko Lake and across Goose Lake Road. Goose Lake itself — which the company says is basically a slough — would disappear.
The valley that would become the main part of the tailings pond includes the remains of an 1800s homestead and of the house in which George Little, now 80, grew up.
He would also have to move from his current house, though he intends to rebuild elsewhere on his remaining land. “I’m not too impressed with that,” Little said today of the prospect of moving.
Lacasse said the final parts of the plan to relocate the proposed drystack tailings storage from between the Coquihalla Highway and Lac le Jeune Road south and east to the Goose Lake area came together last Friday.
“All I can say is that, yes, we did engage the Antoniak family,” said Lacasse. “There was no pressure. We treated these folks fairly.
“They had legal representation so it’s not like anybody forced them to sell or move. We approached them and we expressed a desire to purchase some land,” he said.
“In the end the final decision was theirs to agree or not to agree to sell their land.”
The Antoniaks told The Armchair Mayor News earlier this week they had no desire to move but feared becoming land-locked by KGHM-owned land and losing property value.
“They would have been doing their mining all around us,” said Sharon Antoniak. “Our options were zip.”
They’re still living in their home under a lease from KGHM that expires in June next year.
Valley of the tailings pond looking south.
(photo taken last winter)
Computer-generated view of proposed tailings pond. Jacko Lake
and the pit are shown north of the pond, new waste rock stack is
to right of the pond. Goose Lake would disappear in lower
centre of pond. Part of Edith Lake
is on far right.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
This is nothing short of criminal, the lovely pictures being turned in to a mine site, I mean! If it’s true that there is no pressure on the Antoniak’s, then the Antoniak’s ahould rethink their sale to these guys and hang in there! We wish them all the luck in the world.
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Dear Mel,
Thanks for telling the story about the Antoniak’s home.
Words can’t express the anger many of us feel about what has happened.And what is likely to happen. I know that this story has played out countless times all over the world. i guess we are all guilty of not paying close attention until it happens in our back yard..make that our FRONT yard. We will all lose so much.
“Cry the Beloved Country”
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I heard Sharon Antoniak today in a very powerful interview on CBC. If they were told that the mine was going to grow up around them if they didn’t sell – what choice did they really have. If I were Mr Lacasse I would be ashamed of myself for taking part in this. He should perhaps listen to the interview with an open heart and mind.
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So Yves Lacasse says there was no pressure and the Antoniaks say they were under pressure. Then again, since he works for KGHM/Ajax he probably has a different definition of the word “pressure”, just like they have different definitions for “zero” and “harm”.
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No pressure to sell of course if you like you like the view of a slurry pond from your living room. Honestly, how stupid does KGHM think we are?
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“They had legal representation so it’s not like anybody forced them to sell…”
Dearest Armchair Mayor;
When I read that I got a little tipped-off, in a couple of ways.
First of all with a big ugly mine potentially “growing” up around them what were the Antoniak’s options? Pretty limited wouldn’t you say? So in a way they were forced to sell. Which brings up the other tip-me-off-in-a-big-way point. When he said them words didn’t your better judgement made you say or do something? You just stood there and wrote down notes? You didn’t laugh at him? You didn’t “puff” any?
Your article reads like a mere reporting, bland, like a shoulder shrug. What I read into his words is an arrogant snobbery devoid of human emotion. Where are you, Mel? Where are you?
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