A letter of intent outlining Columbia National Investments' (CNI) plan to have Pan Pacific Aggregates (PPA) operate their gravel mine near Chapman Creek is raising the hackles of the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) board.
"I really do not want the community to become meat in the sandwich for some London Stock Exchange promotion," said Gibsons director Barry Janyk at the July 10 planning and development committee meeting. PPA shares are listed on the UK's Alternative Investment Market (AIM), while CNI is a private company.
The Pine Flats quarry is a 50-acre permitted mining site, purchased by CNI from AJB Investments Ltd. in July 2006. Three parcels of surrounding land owned by CNI comprise 2,251 acres (911 hectares), and are classified as private managed forest land (PMFL), qualifying CNI for a significant tax break. According to a PPA news release, 2007 trial operations at Pine Flats "established the deposit was commercially profitable." When Coast Reporter met with PPA executive Don Nicholson and CNI chief executive officer Steve Dunton on Tuesday (July 15), Nicholson said drilling tenders are being accepted now, with the work planned for the fall, subject to the availability of rigs. PPA hopes to have drill results by the end of the year, he added.
Though the press release notes Pine Flats "adjoins the current operations of Consolidated Aggregates" (actually Construction Aggregates) and mentions their ship-loading facility, SCRD assistant planner Teresa Fortin told the board CNI would need to amend their permit to transport the aggregate.
Construction Aggregates mine manager Mike Latimer said there has been no talks with CNI so far.
"There hasn't been any discussion with us, at least on any kind of formal level," he said. "Our ship loader is dedicated for our mine site, our products, and our customers, and that's they way we'll be keeping it for now."
Regional mining inspector Ed Taje told Fortin he's received no applications for amendment yet, and "said not to panic," Fortin added. Janyk mused the board may yet have cause for concern, since the amalgamation of PPA and CNI "says PPANIC to me."
Dunton said a week-long community consultation session, originally scheduled to take place this spring, will occur in the fall. It will outline CNI's residential community plans for the 911 hectares adjacent to the mine site. "CNI has no interest in causing trouble to the water system," added Dunton. "That is the real issue, and people don't seem to understand that."
"There's no overland ability for the mine site to drain into Chapman Creek," said Dunton, adding a hydrological report took place before the amended mining permit was issued in February 2007. The permit allows 240,000 tonnes to be extracted annually from the pit, a rate too low to trigger an environmental assessment. (For comparison, Construction Aggregates ships five million tonnes per year from their operation). The permit specifies all excavations within the pit must stay at least a metre above the water table, and says no extraction can occur within 200 metres of Chapman Creek, or on the west side of a road separating the quarry site from the creek.
Pine Flats also falls within director Donna Shugar's electoral area D (Roberts Creek), and SCRD staff are now looking into whether the provincial jurisdiction over extraction will trump local zoning, which doesn't allow for processing of aggregate in that area. Ministry of mines, energy, and petroleum spokesperson Jake Jacobs said precedence of legislation "is mandate of the courts, not us," he added. The board noted invitations for Dunton to appear before the board haven't drawn any response for over two months, and moved to have staff draft a letter to Construction Aggregates asking whether there are negotiation between them and CNI. Area B (Halfmoon Bay) director Garry Nohr also requested staff create an overlay of PPA's mining claims and CNI property on the Coast.
Neither of the two companies are endeared to the SCRD. In 2005, the regional district sued PPA for infractions at their south site operation, which lies in the hills west of Snake Bay in Sechelt Inlet. An attempt by CNI in November 2007 to sell land to the regional district that lies beneath the SCRD water intake pipe fell apart because the two sides couldn't agree on the dollars.
"A lot of CNI dislike has to do with the fact that we haven't handed over title to the water system land," commented Dunton.
