The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency said Dec. 22 that it has commenced a federal environmental assessment of the proposed Crown Mountain Coking Coal Project, located approximately 12 kilometers from the District of Sparwood in southeastern British Columbia.
The agency invites the public to comment on which aspects of the environment may be affected by this project and what should be examined during the environmental assessment. This is the second of four opportunities for the public to comment on this project. All comments received will be considered public. Written comments must be submitted by Jan. 30, 2015.
Following this comment period, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency will finalize and issue the EIS Guidelines to the proponent. An application period for participant funding and a future public comment period on the proponent’s EIS will be announced at later dates.
NWP Coal Canada Ltd. is the proponent of the Crown Mountain Coking Coal Project. NWP Coal Canada is a wholly owned subsidiary of Jameson Resources Ltd. out of Australia. The project is a proposed open pit metallurgical coal mine in the Elk Valley coalfield in the East Kootenay Region of south eastern British Columbia. The site consists of five coal tenure licences covering a total area of 2,588 hectares and one license application. The project occurs between several existing metallurgical coal mines in the Elk Valley and Crowsnest coal fields, the nearest being Teck Corp.’s Elkview (8 kilometers southwest) and Line Creek (12 kilometers north) mines.
The anticipated production capacity of the project is 3.7 million run-of-mine tonnes per annum (approximately 10,150 tonnes per day) for 16 years (not including site decommissioning). Run of mine coal reserves are estimated at 56 million tonnes, of which 50 million tonnes are proven and 6 million tonnes are probable.
