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Eskay Creek access road : a case study

British Columbia Mine Reclamation Symposium; University of British Columbia. Norman B. Keevil Institute of Mining Engineering

The Eskay Creek mine is located approximately 130 km north of Stewart BC. The construction of the lskut Road and Eskay Creek Spur road was a critical component of mine development and allowed the mine to begin production on schedule in January 1995. In 1990, after an extensive exploration program, a decision was made to develop the property. Although there had been a number of studies investigating road access to the area along the lskut River Valley, property access was controlled by helicopter support. The initial lskut road study was completed by the B.C. government. In 1991 a study was co-sponsored by Cominco and Corona Corporation (now Homestake Canada Inc. and Prime Resources Group - Eskay Creek) and the Ministry of Energy Mines and Petroleum Resources. This paper describes the two stage construction of the 60 km road with respect to environmental design considerations, progressive reclamation activity, First Nations participation and the evolution of the permitting process. A description of the role of Environmental Supervisor and the development of Mitigation Plans is highlighted. Finally, the paper will describe the necessity of mining roads for mineral development and the positive aspects of road development and construction. The implications of regulatory initiatives, such as the Forestry Practices Code, federal and provincial involvement and binding road development with environmental assessment processes will be discussed.

Conference Paper

application/pdf

2009-07-08

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/10398

Unreviewed

British Columbia Technical and Research Committee on Reclamation

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