Mount Milligan On A Quest For Water

Feb 16, 2018 | 12:48 PM

MOUNT MILLIGAN — Mother Nature has not been kind to Canterra Gold’s Mount Milligan copper-gold mine. Mines use a lot of water, but Mount Milligan relies on Mother Nature to supply its water. Low snowpack levels in recent winters have created headaches. And, then, most recently.

“In December, we were transferring some water while in the process of keeping the water clean for our mill. During that process, we had a record-low temperature spell and we froze nearly 650,000 cubic metres of our one million cubic metres of water supply,” explains Phil Welten, General Manager for Mount Milligan. 

As a result, the mine was shut down for five weeks. An amendment was made to the mine’s Environmental Assessment Certificate to access a water supply from Philip Lake four kilometres away. But that is a short-term solution.

“So we are trying to supplement our future sources with groundwater. We’ve had some fairly significant snow this year so this year’s freshet, we’re hoping, is a very good one and should help us withstand if we have another dry spell next year.”