Opponents of the proposed Grassy Mountain mine in Southern Alberta seemingly applauded potential job losses at public hearings in Calgary if the project is rejected by the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER).
During cross examination by panel members, several audience members could be heard expressing in the affirmative about the possibility of Northback closing its doors after company representatives all but confirmed that would be the likely outcome if its proposed exploration program was rejected.
“We would consider whether to proceed with the project in general if we could not get a drill program approved,” Northback chief operating officer Stacey Brown said, when asked what would back be the company’s recourse if it were denied a permit to proceed with an exploration program at the mine site near Coleman.
“So, therefore — and if that was the case, Northback would be, I guess, folded and there would be job losses in the Blairmore office and Calgary office.”
That prompted muted expressions of approval from gallery members in the quasi-courtroom setting.
The company is applying to drill about three dozen test holes on public and private land to delineate ground water and provide geotechnical data to inform a future application on a full-blown mine. More than 517 similar holes have been drilled at the site since the 1970s.
In addition, the company is applying to divert a limited amount of water from a pair of existing tailings lakes to drill the wells.
Hearings began in Pincher Creek in December. Once final submissions are complete, the panel will have 90 days to make a decision to allow the exploration. The company will then use the data gained to fine tune a broader application for a mine to be submitted at an as yet undetermined, later date.
The drill program is expected to cost about $5 million compared to about $1 billion for a full-blown mine, which is the subject of a separate application.
Brown said most of the funds would go to local contractors as well as First Nations members who have been hired as security guards and monitors at the Grassy Mountain site which sits atop its traditional lands.
And in fact, it would be members of the Piikani and Stoney Nakoda First Nations that would be the main beneficiaries, although Piikani representatives testified the group has no formal benefits agreement with the company to make those hires.
Although tribal administration is in favour of the mines, individual members of both communities were among the 200 or so protestors that picketed the AER offices from Tuesday to Thursday of last week.
Despite the protests being peaceful Northback spokesperson Rina Blacklaws said she and her colleagues were saddened — but not surprised — opponents would take pleasure in denying local aboriginal communities job and education opportunities they take for granted.
“We were disheartened and disappointed that people would take pleasure in seeing their neighbours lose their jobs” if the project fails to be approved, she said.
The Grassy Mountain site has been intermittently mined for more than a century, leaving behind a legacy of environmental damage including buildup of toxic selenium blamed for contaminating the headwaters of the Old Man River.
Opponents argue redevelopment of the site should be banned in accordance with a Lougheed-era policy enacted in 1976 banning new coal mines on the Eastern Slopes of the Rocky Mountains.
Proponents argue Grassy Mountain isn’t a ‘new’ development in the strictest sense and that redevelopment would allow the site to be properly reclaimed.
Northback is a subsidiary of Australian mining giant Hancock Prospecting. It was previously known as Riversdale and then Benga Mining before becoming Northback in 2022.
Nearly 73% of Crowsnest Pass residents approved the proposal in a non-binding referendum in November of 2024 even though the mine site is situated in the MD of Ranchlands, which formally opposes it.