As a dormant mine site west of Sechelt resumes activity, several mining companies are fighting in court over who has the right to mine the 3,500 acre property.
The mine, located beyond the top of Mason Road, was first explored in the 1970s and generated a flurry of interest in the 1990s when Sechelt businessman Rudy Riepe, proprietor of Tri-Sil Minerals Inc., promoted it as a rich source of the mineral wollastonite.
There has been intermittent mining activity at the site over the years. According to two mining companies with an interest in the site, Mineral Hill Industries Inc. and Pan Pacific Aggregates Plc. (PPAP), the mine site contains gabbro, known as "black granite," sand, aggregate, dolomite, industrial garnet, dimensional limestone, calcite and wollastonite.
Mineral Hill and PPAP both claim they made deals with Tri-Sil that give them the right to mine the site, and they are fighting it out in court. PPAP has also staked mineral claims to about 52,000 acres on the Sechelt Peninsula.
According to Victor Blazevic, business development leader of Mineral Hill Industries Inc., in 2003 his company exercised a three-year option on a 50/50 joint venture agreement with Riepe and Tri-Sil.
"Our position is that we honoured our agreement, money was spent, a document was signed. We were going to go into production," Blazevic said. "We're the operator and we have a joint venture for some of the claims that are on the property."
But another mining company, Global Industrial Services Inc. (GIS), came into the picture. In 2002, GIS announced the signing of a contract for development of the West Sechelt mine site and quoted Riepe as a shareholder and consultant to GIS. Pan Pacific said in a press release that it acquired majority control of Tri-Sil and 100 per cent of Global Industrial Services Inc. on March 31 and that the 3,500 acre mine site "is subject to a legal dispute as to the existence of a joint venture between Tri-Sil and Mineral Hill Industries."
Global Industrial Services issued its own press release on the deal April 13, saying Pan Pacific paid $700,000 plus royalties on all material sold from the West Sechelt claims.
On Dec. 16, 2004, Mineral Hill Industries applied to the B.C. Ministry of Energy and Mines for a permit to operate a limestone quarry on the site. The application outlined a plan to extract 237,000 tonnes of rock and minerals per year for the next five years and to "drill, blast, crush, stockpile materials." The application named Rock Construction and Mining Inc. as the blasting contractor.
But on April 14, Blazevic told the planning committee of the Sunshine Coast Regional District his company plans to withdraw that quarry application pending the outcome of its lawsuit against Tri-Sil.
Blazevic said his company has nothing to do with the current activities at the mine site.
"I'd like to dissociate ourselves from anyone doing things without due process or due course," he said. "There is legal action in place right now."
Blazevic said his company wants to be a good corporate citizen and would work to address concerns such as noise.
"There is technology to muffle noise," he said. "There are alternative ways of doing mining, where it's hidden from view, where it's environmentally friendly."
Also on April 14, Pan Pacific was interviewing applicants for quarry-related jobs at a Sechelt job fair. Pan Pacific named Emil Anderson Construction Inc. as its mining contractor for the quarry.
Riepe could not be reached for comment at press time.
