Castle Project is a proposed open-pit metallurgical coal mine expansion of Teck's Fording River Operations in the Elk Valley, which produces steelmaking coal

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Teck's Castle Project designated by the Canadian govt under the Impact Assessment Act. (Credit: S. Hermann & F. Richter from Pixabay)

The Canadian government has designated Teck Resources’ proposed Castle Project in British Columbia province under the Impact Assessment Act (IAA) citing that it can potentially cause adverse environmental impacts, which include concerns over downstream selenium pollution.

The project to be taken up by the company’s subsidiary Teck Coal proposes to be an open-pit metallurgical coal mine expansion of Fording River Operations in the Elk Valley, which produces steelmaking coal.

The Castle Project has been proposed to develop an adjacent deposit of what is claimed to be more economically mineable coal, located to the south of the Fording River coal mine.

Located about 30km north of Elkford, the coal mine expansion project is estimated to sustain production capacity of 10 million tonnes per year.

Jonathan Wilkinson, the Canadian Minister of Environment and Climate Change said that the coal mine expansion project has been designated due to its potential to create unfavourable effects within federal jurisdiction and adverse direct or incidental impacts.

Besides, public concerns pertaining to the effects, and also possible adverse impacts on the Aboriginal and Treaty rights of the Indigenous Peoples of Canada, have been cited by the Minister for taking the decision.

Wilkinson was also guided by the report from Impact Assessment Act which came to the conclusion that the Castle Project has potential for adverse effects which may not be mitigated through its design, nor with the implementation of standard mitigation measures, and also through existing legislative mechanisms.

Mining Association of Canada disappointed with the Castle Project designation

The Mining Association of Canada (MAC) has expressed its disappointment on the federal government’s decision to designate the Castle coal mine expansion project. The association said that the project was already going through a meticulous provincial environmental review process and that the designation would bring deteriorating confidence in the Impact Assessment Act.

Mining Association of Canada president and CEO Pierre Gratton said: “We are very disheartened by the federal government’s decision on the Castle Project given the expansion fell well below the threshold to being subject to the IAA.

“This decision certainly has the potential to lead to longer timelines at a time of unprecedented global economic uncertainty.”