The Chief of Skeetchestn Indian Band near Kamloops says his council will stand by the community’s decision on the Ajax Mine.

Chief Ron Ignace says people in his community and Tk’emlúps te Secwepemc decided the project near Jacko Lake was the wrong mine in the wrong place.

“The people have instructed us as council, the position that we should move forward with on this area. We have a title case moving forward on that land as well, representing our desire to have our rights to our lands and resources recognized, respected and upheld.”

Ignace was responding to a statement by the Abacus Mining, the minority owner of Ajax, that the proposed mine is not dead.

“If I recall, the former chief of Kamloops, stated very clearly that no means no. So I could see Abacus and others have other aspirations I guess. But we have to listen to what our people said in terms of the decision that we did to our project assessment review of the mine.”

The project was been shot down by the provincial government in December of 2017, after it cited 53 adverse effects as well as significant adverse effects in Indigenous values.

“We have a winding down agreement with the province that we need to begin implementing. And that our community members are determined that they want to have that set aside as a heritage park, so that all Canadians can come and learn and benefit from our traditional values on the land.”