Riversdale proceeding with mining project

Joni MacFarlane, Crowsnest Voice

Riversdale Resources provided Crowsnest Pass council with a brief progress report on Tuesday afternoon, followed by an open house for the public later that evening.

Peter Murray, operations manager with Riversdale, told council he moved to Crowsnest Pass three months ago to help get the mining project underway and that operations were proceeding well.
A lease has been acquired from Devon, said Murray, and the mining giant is now looking at proposed drilling sites. Once test sites have been determined, the company will apply for two separate permits from the province to drill exploratory holes.


A coal seam on the western side of the former mine site has been excavated exposing the coal which dips down to the west. “So we’re actually chasing the seam”, he explained.

Murray said exploration would start depending on how long it takes to get through the permit process and determining a multitude of other aspects. These include access to each drill site, how much exploration must be done, how trucks and equipment will be brought to site, and access into the site from the road.

“So there’s a whole array of different things we have to put together for the government departments,” Murray said.

He estimated that exploration should start towards the end of November or early December.
After the holes are drilled, samples are then taken and tested for quality. This will also determine the degree of waste produced.

“The coal quality on the mountain so far looks like really good coking coal,” he said. “From all indications the coal on that mountain up there is pretty much first class coal and there’s lots of coal up there.”

Riversdale estimates at least two million tonnes per year, Murray added.

He explained that the project is surface mining and said although it’s too early to say how the coal will be brought to the railway, conveyor belts will ship it down to a wash plant at the bottom and from there it will be loaded onto railway lines. Engineers will determine where the railway line will be after several items are determined such as coal quality, how deep the coal is, and how accessible it is.
“We can’t have a coal line unless we know exactly the quality of that coal,” said Murray.

In addition, Morgan Tanner, a consultant hired by Riversdale, said she’s been informally engaged with all five of the Treaty Seven First Nations earlier in the year.

Once the permit applications are submitted to the province, the company will then begin formal consultations with the Nations, she said.

“Formal consultation as well as informal engagement, jobs and training, and any kind of opportunities that may come from the exploration project, will have those discussions ongoing with all five Nations,” said Tanner.

Once the coal permit gets submitted to the provincial government, it goes to the Nations for review and then Riversdale needs to come and speak to them to further discuss the project, she explained.
Tanner added that if there is work occurring in an area “where there is traditional significance or some kind of sensitivity, then there may be a slow up in the project, depending on what it is”.

However, by having early engagement with the Nations, this kind of information is acquired in the early stages of the project and she doesn’t foresee any problems.