S TANDARD TERRACE
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VOL. 27 NO. 8
www.terracestandard.com
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
Miners, Nisga’a strike deal THE NISGA’A Lisims Government and the company which wants to build a molybdenum mine at Kitsault have reached a revenue sharing deal. Avanti Mining already has provincial environmental approval and is close to having the federal government give its approval as well, setting the stage for the company to spend nearly $1 billion on a mine expected to produce ore for 14 years. The deal, announced last week, is the first substantial commercial deal with a private sector company
negotiated by the Nisga’a Lisims Government since it signed a land claims treaty with the federal and provincial governments in 2000. Included in the deal’s economic benefits is the provision for Avanti to pay the Nisga’a a net smelter royalty of up to two per cent based on prevailing molybdenum prices. It also ends Nisga’a Lisims Government opposition to the project on environmental grounds. That opposition had resulted in the Nisga’a filing federal and provincial court actions seeking an overturning of provincial envi-
ronmental approval. One of those court actions with the B.C. Supreme Court was filed last July but was suspended last fall. The deal does address Nisga’a environmental concerns revolving around water quality and other matters. The Kitsault area is not within Nisga’a lands as outlined in the 2000 agreement but it is within an area of interest in which the Nisga’a have an influence. Molybdenum has several uses and its chief one is to strengthen steel.
Avanti is working on its final financing with German and South Korean lenders for the project which, when fully permitted, is scheduled to take about two years to build. It has also been signing sales agreements with South Korean and German steel manufacturers. When fully operational the mine is expected to employ more than 300 people and Avanti has committed itself to an extensive aboriginal hiring and business development program. “We are pleased to have finally
reached an agreement with Avanti that will enable the project to proceed while ensuring that our treaty rights are respected, and our nation’s environment is protected” said Mitchell Stevens, President of the Nisga’a Lisims Government. “We wish to congratulate Avanti’s new executive team who approached us with a sincere interest in addressing our concerns with the project, which we were then able to work through without delay,” he continued.
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Hotel site in limbo By JOSH MASSEY
JACK BEEDLE PHOTO
■■ Going up AIDAN CARTER was just one of many people who participated in the Race to Shames bike race Sunday, June 1. The nearly 13 kilometre race, hosted by TORCA and My Mountain Co-op, saw bikers ride up the Shames Mountain road. Willie Muller got up the mountain first with Chris Gee close behind. A BBQ and prize giveaway at the Shames Mountain lodge followed the race, an event which also celebrated the completion of Bike to Work week and the Bike to Boogie fundraiser.
THE COMPANY in charge of cleaning up the former Terrace Co-op site on the 4500 Block of Greig Ave. which the city wants to sell to a Calgary-based hotel company says it could take at least five years before environmental reclamation work is complete. Last May the city signed a $877,500 purchase agreement with Superior Lodgings for the sale of the 2.8 acre parcel on which once sat a large shopping centre, garden centre and gas bar. When the complex closed in 1997 as a result of an economic downturn, the land was taken over by the national Federated Co-op and with it the responsibility for cleaning up the parcel. Federated Co-op then sold the land to another individual under the condition that the Co-op would continue doing the environmental cleanup. This new owner then sold the land to the city for $1 million in 2005 under the same conditions. Since then the city has received provincial grant money to study the contamination levels as part of the reclamation process. It demolished the Co-op complex several years ago as a step toward selling the property. Federated Co-op environmental affairs director Trevor Carlson says his company is finishing the second part of a two-stage cleanup which involved onsite work followed by putting bacteria into the ground that would feed on leftover petrochemicals. “It’s safe to say that what we are dealing with now are residual trace concentrations, we are not dealing with any kind of gross contamination. The lion’s share of that impact has been dealt with,” he said. However, he predicts it will be about five years until the site is clean enough for the provincial environment ministry to grant a certificate of compliance.
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Camp honour
Pipeline plans
Ruff finish
Terrace residents draw honour for service to Houston bible camp \COMMUNITY A10
New route details emerge for two LNG pipeline companies \NEWS A13
Senior Cameron Netzel’s final provincial track meet goes to the dogs \SPORTS A29