Canadian Zinc pleased with court road ruling

The Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories has ruled that Canadian Zinc Corp. can reopen a winter road to its Prairie Creek mine without a new environmental review process, saying the road was already in operation well before new environmental rules were instituted in 1984.

The territory's high court made its ruling May 6, overturning a decision by the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board. The board had said at least a preliminary screening was needed, and perhaps an environmental assessment and environmental impact review by the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board. All that would have led to long delays, the company contended.

The court said its own 2003 ruling in a case involving North American Tungsten Corp. Ltd. guided this case as well: "The Court (of Appeal) referred to the legislative intention that projects which predate June 22, 1984, are to be subjected to a full scale environmental assessment only if they depart significantly from their approved mode of operation and engage in decommissioning, abandonment or significant alteration of the project. The project, in this case, the operation of the winter access road, predates June 22, 1984. As found by the (Water) Board, the permit sought by CZC is not based on any intentions to significantly alter that project or to abandon or decommission it."

Canadian Zinc said in a statement that the ruling "does not mean that the road will not be subject to applicable regulatory standards and operated to the highest environmental standards and operational safety and in consultation with affected local communities."

The mine road is controversial in Canada because it runs through the Nahanni River watershed in southwestern Northwest Territories. Former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau helped establish the Nahanni National Park in 1976 to protect it from damming for a hydroelectric project, after paddling the river in 1970. His son, Justin Trudeau, has been campaigning to stop the mine.

Canadian Zinc, which is 100 percent owner of the underground mine, applied for the road permit in May 2003, but the development was stalled by the legal complications. The mine dates back decades, with major development work starting in the 1960s. Mine development was more than 90 percent finished by 1982, when the silver market collapsed and the then-owner went into bankruptcy. The site has an estimated 70 million ounces of silver, 3 billion pounds of zinc and 2.2 billions pounds of lead, according to the company. It contains about 12 million tonnes of ore with average grading of 12.5 percent zinc, 10.1 percent lead, 0.4 percent copper and 161 grams of silver per tonne.