Smith says Northback MUST use underground mining if Grassy Mountain to be approved
For first time, Alberta premier says open-pit or strip mining at Grassy Mountain will not be allowed because of selenium risk to water. Let's hold her to it!
“When it comes to coal mining, people do not want to see mountaintop removal,” she said. “People do not want to see strip mining.
“They’re concerned that when you do that, it exposes the rock face to when it rains and selenium gets into the water system -- so we’ve put a policy into place.
“You can’t do these things,” she said. “You can’t do open pit mining and you can’t do strip mining -- but if you can find techniques that allow you to do new underground mining, then we’re going to be open to approving those projects.”
This signals either a 180-degree shift or that Smith simply doesn’t understand her own government’s policy or Northback’s grandfathered exemption from future new mining rules.
Either way, let’s hold her to it.
(CTV report includes misleading quote by me. I meant that there is nothing more we can do through the AER regulatory process, which is institutionally corrupt. Further action must be directed at Alberta’s politicians.)
Link to CTV News web article . . .
Word play. Obfuscation. Doublespeak. Bafflegab. Whatever you want to call it. "There are a variety of technical techniques: highwall, contour mining, auger mining, self-contained progressive reclamation mining, etc. The important part for our purposes is that we want to minimize the movement and displacement of overburden. We don’t want overburden to leach out selenium,” a spokesperson for Energy and Minerals said. https://www.lakelandtoday.ca/local-news/strip-mining-to-be-allowed-under-albertas-new-coal-rules-10076076
What will they do with the waste rock? Build new "pit heaps"?