Two mines on the horizon

Nov 19, 2020 | 3:59 PM

VANDERHOOF – There hasn’t been much mining activity in this region of late, save the Mount Milligan project. But two gold mining projects are slated to move ahead: Blackwater Gold south of Vanderhoof and Cariboo Gold at Wells.

For the community of Vanderhoof, Artemis’ decision to forge ahead after buying the project from New Gold, is music to the ears. But Brian Frenkel with the District of Vanderhoof says the whole region will see the economic impacts.

“I mean if there are 486 permanent jobs, and 800 construction jobs, that’s regional, that’s provincial. I don’t think any single community could absorb that many jobs.”

Even Artemis says the project will benefit the Bulkley-Nechako, Cariboo and Fraser Fort George Regional Districts. With an investment of $1.5 billion, “Blackwater would be one of the largest capital investments ifor the region in the last ten years.”

“If you’re seeing two different mining companies with two different mines in two different geographies coming forward, saying ‘Look, we want to invest in Northern British Columbia. We want to create jobs here’ That means that this is a jurisdiction you can invest in,” says Joel McKay, CEO of the Northern Development Initiative Trust.

But he says communities need to look within to prepare to take advantage of the economic potential with projects like these.

Both projects are set to start construction early in 2022. Vanderhoof is currently home to a camp with hundreds of workers on the Coastal GasLink project. But Frenkel says that project will be winding down when the mining project kicks in.

” I think it’ll be close, maybe seamless. So that would be a positive thing.”

He says he appreciates that Artemis is taking a more measured approach to developing the provincial.

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