A Kamloops councillor is surprised that the Ajax Mine has gone ahead and hired a superintendent to engage the community again on its defeated project.
Denis Walsh was responding to the company planning to resubmit an environmental application to build an open-pit copper and gold mine near Jacko Lake.
“More so on the timing, I thought it was sooner or later they were going to come back. Because there’s copper and gold in those hills. But the concern is the city. In fact it was just a few weeks ago, we approved an expansion up in Aberdeen that I think was recognizing the fact that the Ajax Mine was never going to go in.”
In July, Kamloops council approved plans that will see 1,600 new housing units and an elementary school built in Aberdeen, in a new subdivision called Edinburgh Heights. It will also see Pacific Way built out to connect to Highway 5A.
“It’s very concerning with the approval of that new development up in Aberdeen. Plus 43 per cent of our growth is projected for the Aberdeen area. So if Ajax was to revise itself and actually get passed, we would have to seriously have a look at where we could find land to expand our city.”
Abacus Mining announced this week that KGHM, which has an 80 per cent ownership interest in the proposed project, has hired Michal Wypych to engage the City of Kamloops, local Indigenous bands and levels of government on reviving its plan.
Wypych lives in Kamloops and was previously involved with planning for the Ajax Mine, before its environmental plan was rejected in December of 2017 by the B.C. government. According to LinkedIn, Wypych was the Chief Mine Engineer for KGHM from 2012 to 2018.
“I think those that are opposing it had very valid reasons. Environmental aspects. I can’t see them changing that. Maybe (KGHM) will come up with something, obviously they think they have another angle that they can attack it at. It just puts a lot of uncertainty on top of the uncertainty we’re already experiencing,” Walsh says.
In its initial pitch, the Ajax Mine would’ve operated for 23 years, and KGHM says it would’ve employed 1,800 people during construction and 500 during operation.
