Instead,
pledges or guarantees based on the value of minerals are often accepted
when the provincial Chief Inspector of Mines decides on the form of
financial assurance.

That leaves B.C. taxpayers on the hook, with Auditor General Carol Bellringer estimating in her 2016 report
that there is a $1.43 billion gap between the total cleanup liability
of $2.79 billion and $1.36 billion held in financial assurance. Another
report by the watchdog group MiningWatch Canada estimated the figure to
be closer to $3 billion.

The expense of cleaning up mining messes, such as acid mine drainage, can be staggering.