BMC Minerals, the Vancouver-based company behind the project, hopes to extract 1.8 million tonnes of zinc, 600,000 tonnes of copper and 350,000 tonnes of lead from the Kudz Ze Kayah mine over a 10-year lifespan, after which a 26-year closure and reclamation process will take place.
The federal government’s order comes on the heels of a letter from Stephen Charlie, Chief of Liard First Nation, which states the assessment board “erred in law” when recommending the project move ahead for government approval without a full review under the territory’s assessment act.
In its screening report for the project the executive committee acknowledged the mine would have “significant adverse effects” on water, traditional land use and wildlife and will contribute to the “likely decline” of the Finlayson caribou herd, a subsistence food resource for the Kaska Nation, comprised of five Dene-speaking First Nations spanning the Yukon and British Columbia border.
The Kaska nation’s traditional territory encompasses 24 million hectares — equivalent to the size of the state of Oregon — stretching across B.C., Yukon and the Northwest Territories.
Source: Kudz Ze Kayah mine stokes tensions between Canada, Yukon, First Nations