Gold mine with history of contaminating B.C. creek fined $276K

A gold mining company that discharged contaminants into a B.C. creek more than a thousand times since 2017 has now been fined over $275,000 for its most recent violations of environmental rules, according to a March 2024 report from the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy.

Barkerville Gold Mines, owned by Osisko Development since 2019, operates two gold mines and a processing mill east of Quesnel, B.C., in the mountainous Cariboo region about 440 kilometres north of Vancouver. The environmental violations took place at its underground Bonanza Ledge gold mine.

The ministry's Determination of Administrative Penalty report documents the "discharge of effluent from an underground mine, rock dump drainage, site runoff and open pit effluent from a Sediment Control Pond" into Lowhee Creek. 

The concentration and composition of effluents were in higher concentrations than permitted, the report says.

The report documented 417 separate violations on 68 different days in 2020 and 2021. It also noted previous violations, including 215 incidents in 2017, and 463 between 2018 and 2019.

Because the violations occurred so often, the frequency of aquatic exposure was "chronic and long term," according to the report.

It adds the company's environmental violations and release of contaminants may adversely affect aquatic life, as some of the contaminants, including nitrates, can harm invertebrates, fish and amphibians. Potential impacts include a reduced ability to reproduce, physical deformities and death, according to the government. 

B.C.'s environment ministry initially fined Barkerville Gold $760,000 for the most recent environmental violations in 2020 and 2021. That was reduced to $276,360 after the company filed an appeal with a document that was 10,000 pages long. 

The penalty was lowered in part because many of the violations happened during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the ministry, which says in the report that public health rules, travel restrictions, and business closures delayed Barkerville Gold's ability to install and troubleshoot water treatment equipment, and to bring contractors and consultants to the site.

Barkerville Gold operates near the small community of Wells — about 63 kilometres east of Quesnel — and the Barkerville Historic Town and Park, a popular tourist attraction that recreates a living history gold rush boom town.

In an email to CBC news, District of Wells Mayor Ed Coleman said in his view, he has a good working relationship with the company, and that any penalties levied are in the hands of the province. 

Coleman said it's important to note that the environmental violations for which the company is now being fined happened several years ago.

"I'm dealing with the present and the province can deal with the past." 

'Very strange' to see fines reduced

Jamie Kneen, national program co-lead of Miningwatch Canada, an environmental and human rights advocacy group, told CBC News in an interview that it was "very strange" to see the fines reduced.

"It's striking. It seems kind of excessive, especially given the number of violations. What happens now? Do they do any cleanup? Or do they just say, 'Sorry'?"

In an email to CBC News, an Osisko Development spokesperson said the company will pay the administrative penalty and has taken "active steps to address these non-compliances."

The company says it has spent more than $2 million on a state-of-the-art water treatment facility at the Bonanza Ledge mine.

In 2021, the B.C. government approved the expansion of Bonanza Ledge. 

In 2023, the province gave environmental approval to Osisko for a new mine, the Cariboo Gold Project, nearby.