Charges filed against Miramar Mining

Environment Canada, a department of the federal government, has laid charges against Vancouver-based Miramar Mining and four related companies for alleged offences related to a fuel spill at a mining exploration camp at Windy Lake, Nunavut. The charges resulted from an inspection and subsequent investigation by Environment Canada enforcement officers, following a report of a 19,000 liter fuel spill on June 16, 2004. Miramar is charged with violating the federal Fisheries Act, the Migratory Birds Convention Act and the Nunavut Waters and Nunavut Surface Rights Tribunal Act by depositing harmful substances.

The maximum fines under these laws are C$300,000, C$100,000 and C$100,000 respectively, Environment Canada spokesman Craig Broome told Mining News. If Miramar can prove that it did everything possible to prevent a spill, that would be a valid defense, he added. When Teck Cominco's now-closed Polaris lead-zinc mine in Nunavut was found to have violated the Fisheries Act with a smaller fuel spill in June 2002, the company was fined C$30,000.

Miramar: more stringent procedures adopted

Miramar responded to the charges with a strong defense of its actions since the spill. "The 2004 spill which occurred on Inuit-owned land was a very unfortunate accident, however, it was cleaned up promptly and effectively without any significant residual adverse effect on the environment and to the satisfaction of the land owners," said Miramar's president, Tony Walsh. After the spill, Miramar conducted an audit of environmental procedures at Hope Bay and adopted more stringent fuel handling and containment procedures to prevent a similar occurrence from happening in the future, according to the company.

"As a result of implementing these strict procedures, there have been no significant environmental occurrences at the Hope Bay project in the two years since the spill occurred, and work has continued at Hope Bay unimpeded," Walsh said. "Miramar continues to strive to achieve the highest environmental practices."

Hearing Aug. 28

A Miramar subsidiary, Miramar Hope Bay Ltd., is the sole operator of the Hope Bay project and Miramar will be taking steps to have the charges that have been laid against companies other than Miramar Hope Bay Ltd. withdrawn, the company said. Miramar does not expect that if Miramar Hope Bay Ltd. is found guilty of the offences, the amount of a possible fine would have an impact on the financial position of the company. The first hearing in the case is scheduled for Aug. 28 in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut.

The Hope Bay spill was addressed in the Doris North Final Environmental Impact Statement filed with the Nunavut Impact Review Board in the recent environmental assessment of the Doris North project. In March the board recommended to the minister of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada that the Doris North project should proceed, enabling Miramar to start the permit application process. Miramar plans for Doris North to be the first operating mine within the broader Hope Bay project, which extends over 1,000 square kilometers and encompasses one of the most prospective undeveloped greenstone belts in Canada. If it is built, Doris North will likely become the first new gold mine in Nunavut.