5 things we should know about Ajax
Blast at Malartic mine outside Quebec community. (MiningWatch photo)
NEWS/ AJAX — Ugo Lapointe says there are five things we should know about the proposed Ajax open-pit mine.
Lapointe, the program coordinator for MiningWatch Canada, was in Kamloops on Tuesday to talk about mining and Ajax. His organization is “critical” of mining practices but isn’t anti-mining, he told The Armchair Mayor News over a soup and sandwich at The Smorg.
Monday evening, he was given a tour of the minesite by Akax opponents, and it left him impressed and concerned by the “massive” area that will be covered in tailings.
There are five questions Kamloops residents — whether they’re for or against the project — should focus on finding the answers to, he said.
- Dust — Lapointe said if KGHM International switches back to its original plan for a dry-stack tailings pile, risk from potential breaching of the wet tailings pond will be alleviated, but dust and air quality concerns will be increased. Ajax is “between a rock and a hard place,” he said.
- Water — including underground. He said the long-term impact on the water table needs to be examined.
- Worst-case scenarios — “Good mining practice will always look at worst-case scenarios,” Lapointe said, and KGHM should be doing modeling around them. A tailings-pond breach is one of them, but leaching of contaminants from tailings storage is another.
- Financial risks — Does KGHM have the financial ability to design the operation safely, and to insure itself against environmental damage and remediation?
- Long-term liability — After the lifespan of the mine is finished.
Lapointe also said City council should be pro-active on Ajax even though it has taken a position of neutrality by facilitating public information and discussion.
Even those who support the project should push for a more rigorous examination, he said. “Unfortunately, the debate gets polarized.”
He noted that the Malartic open-pit gold next door to a town of 3,500 in Quebec is causing environmental concerns, especially with respect to dust and blasting.
Lapointe hoped to make a presentation to City council but, after first being told it was okay, was denied when senior staff realized it would be contrary to council policy, which prohibits delegations on Ajax.
A financial report released by the parent KGHM company this week said the submission of the environmental assessment application, which had been expected in June, will be delayed until the second half of the year due to a provincial review of tailings-pond criteria resulting from last year’s Mt. Polley disaster.
The company also reported a two-percent fall in first-quarter net profit.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
I too finding it appalling and disappointing that the people(most of them) we have elected to run our city are playing coy with the Ajax debate. It is completely unprofessional and cowardly to sit on your hands and plug your ears until an environmental assessment becomes public. Those people should jump in their car and take a drive, or mind you, schedule to take a tour of the local mine sites and see if they would like something like that sitting above our heads. Don’t get me wrong, I am not anti mining at all, there is a place for it, but not less than 1km away from the nearest home in Kamloops. Jobs? Nowhere have I seen that “people” from the city of Kamloops will be guaranteed 500 or so jobs at this mine. You would be crazy to start a mine with all “new” people. They will be recruiting their own employees, that have mining experience, or other that do to start and start hard. There will also be no limit to where they mine ore on the site, if they find it, its going to get dug up, even if its on the fence boundary line behind Aberdeen. That’s mining and mining isn’t pretty, but it pays a lot of BC residents well at the risk of their health and the gov’t loves the tax revenue. That’s a choice to be in, where the residents of Kamloops will not have one if this goes through. The only option would be to move
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Excellent comments, and done without attacking anyone. It can be done. By the way, who paid for Mr. Lapointe’s trip to our fair city, or did he pay his own way here?
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We need leadership with vision not with “excuses”.
The “promoters”, with a serious financial stake in it, will never unbiasedly seek what is best for the long term.
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Teck Corp, the largest base metal mining company in Canada with roots that go back to 1906, closed Ajax mines in Kamloops in 1997 for good reasons. Could one of the reasons have been that it would be too high of a risk to expand a weak grade ore deposit that would need huge tonnage extraction from an area that is so near a large City.
KGHM is effectively controlled by the Polish gov’t in Warsaw, it’s parent company shares trade on the Warsaw Exchange and it’s financial results have not been very impressive lately, including cost overruns at it’s Chile start up copper mine of over $1 billion US.
One of the key risk factors is the overall financial structure and future financial capacity of
KGHM to meet all of it’s obligations world wide…..this is, of course difficult to assess. However, it is reasonable to suggest that the primary reason for KGHM to exist is to bring hard currency home to Poland via mining operations in foreign jurisdictions, the Country international credit rating is materially less than Canada’s.
KGHM entry to Canada base metal mining occurred in March 2012 when it acquired Quadra FNX Mining Ltd, listed on the TSX. They recently announced the closing of a mine in the Sudbury Ontario due to the ore body running out resulting in 500 employees being out of work, yes these things happen in the mining industry, just another risk factor.
Ugo Lapointe in his presentation identified five factors, two are financial, who in Government, ( Federal, Provincial or City) is assessing this, it is as important, or more important, than environmental.
In the writer’s opinion, KGHM does not have the ability to post high rated securities to provide overall protection to the people who live in the area of the proposed mine, the value of security should be $50 Billion US adjusted for inflation annually as a minimum.
Based on financial disclosures in the Abacus Mining reports, the PNV of the Ajax mine was about $1.1 Billion in 2013 (Abacus share was 8%) maybe this has since dropped in value?
People looking for data on Ajax can find it via Abacus Mining, they have an active website and are required to report Ajax information to the public as Abacus is a public company that trades it’s shares on a Canadian Stock Exchange (currently it’s share value is .08 cents per share).
Ajax lands should be donated by KGHM to a community Land Trust to be formed and take the maximum tax receipt they can qualify for (in exchange for the land) and use the tax credit to reduce Corporate taxes payable at Quadra FNX Mining……assuming it has profits that are taxable, maybe in this way they recover some or all of the costs spent to date and graciously find a way out !!!!!!
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Kamloops, not KGHMloops!
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Lapointe’s comments add perspective to the situation here. We should not be living in a bubble waiting for the “truth” to arrive. Unfortunately, a lot of people on city council have taken just this stance. One should be looking at other towns and other projects to see what is happening there. The fact that someone like Lapointe could not appear in front of city council just shows to what extent the debate and flow of information is being hamstrung by polarization. This is the probably the greatest issue that this city will ever face, and yet no one is allowed to talk to council about it. If city council is afraid of appearing to be courting favour, then they should think about all the damage that may result from them not doing anything. Believe or not, on many issues there is a lot that is not known and a lot that science can not predict. We need to be proactively digging for answers. The “masterpiece” that we’re awaiting from KGHM, will only be one version of the truth. No doubt with all the time and money they’ve spent on it, it will be a vision of certainty. Don’t buy it.
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Regarding Council’s policy on not hearing delegations on Ajax, pro or con, does this policy also extend to other issues, or is it just the Ajax issue? This policy seems like a “head in the sand” attitude about what is probably the biggest decision ever to face Kamloops. Strange. Council should be encouraging debate and seeking as much information as possible about the project. Instead Council is doing the opposite. What kind of leadership is this? Whose interest do they truly have at heart?
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Thanks for this article, Mel.
We need to find a way as a community to start to really talk about these issues and the implications for our citizens. I am glad that you have managed to keep people talking about Ajax and a bit more informed.
There is much work to be done to raise awareness in Kamloops and talk about the elephant in the room that Ajax has become.
I hope that we can engage in a community conversation that is NOT lead by the mining company. Having people like Ugo here to highlight the challenges encountered in other communities (that weren’t anticipated in the environmental assessment phase) is one way to start a converation about how the models don’t necessarily predict the operating mine’s impact well.
Many of us have very real and valid reasons to be concerned about the potential impacts of Ajax on our community, and we need to keep stating those concerns for as long as it takes for someone to hear us!
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We already have a way…we are talking about it as of now. There is no “magic way” to it.The only unfortunate part is many people are afraid to speak-up because they stand to lose “comfort by not conforming.”
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