Kudz Ze Kayah Mine
The deadline for public comments on the Kudz Ze Kayah Project water licence application has been extended by the Yukon Water Board (YWB) to Friday, May 5th.
BMC Minerals’ Kudz Ze Kayah mine would be located about 20 kilometres off the south side of the Robert Campbell, about 2/3s of the way from Watson Lake to Ross River. For those familiar with the Campbell Highway, the proposed mine would be by Finlayson Lake, positioned within the Pelly Mountains. The following should provide some visual support:
BMC Minerals project outline and location of the ABM deposit (subject of the KZK Project Proposal). The claim blocks are held by BMC Minerals and, in the case of the Fyre Lake claims included in the Kona deposit, under an option to purchase.
The mine would operate on the lands of the Ross River Dena Council and Liard First Nations within the traditional territories of the Kaska Dena.
Kudz Ze Kayah, both the name of the area and BMC Minerals’ proposed mine, translates to ‘caribou country’ in Dene.
The mining claim blocks happen to overlap with the Finlayson Caribou Herd (part of the Northern Mountain Woodland Caribou population) range, particularly their wintering and rutting habitats.
The Finlayson Caribou Herd Range (magenta) depicted in our Caribou StoryMap.
As of 2017, a report by Yukon Government showed that the Finlayson Caribou Herd numbers continued to decline as they had been for several decades. A 2022 population estimate indicates the decline has probably stopped.
Northern Mountain Caribou are still listed under Canada's Species At Risk Act (SARA) as a Species of Special Concern.
The Kaska expressed concern (among other concerns, including water, traditional practices, the scale of the project, environmental impacts) that the mine could pose further threat to the herd, which serves as a precious subsistence harvest.
“We would like to see the caribou herd continue for generations to come.”
- Gordon Peter, Ross River Dena memberQuote from an incredible photo essay by Robby Dick for The Narwal | Kaska Dena, caribou and the looming shadow of an open-pit mine
Given the complexity of the project this 3-month extension is a good thing. It allows everyone, including the Yukon Conservation Society and members of the general public, to plough through all the project documentation related to the water licence application.
Steps to review the documents (as they cannot be linked here directly):
Go to www.yukonwaterboard.ca
Click on the Waterline button
Enter as a guest
Search for QZ20-068
Click on the exhibit tab and all documentation will be revealed.
You can find Kaska’s Intervention document, BMC Mineral’s response, the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board recommendation report and Decision Document posted towards the bottom of the web page.
Another reason to welcome the 3-month extension is that some legal issues surrounding the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board (YESAB) decision document will have hopefully been clarified by then.
The background to the legal issues is somewhat long and complicated.
YESAB issued a recommendation report regarding this project, and from this a Decision Document was issued by the Yukon and Federal governments in mid-2022.
This Decision Document allows the water licensing process to proceed.
Let’s repeat that.
The Yukon Water Board can only proceed with its water licensing process because a Decision Document exists.
However, this Decision Document is being challenged in the Yukon Supreme Court.
"Really, it doesn't change our plan much at all," Allan Nixon, vice-president of external affairs at BMC told CBC News, referring to the lawsuit. "We have a decision document, so we're going to continue to move forward.”
- CBC News/Julien Gignac
A hearing into the court application is scheduled for April 11th - 14th, followed by a possible 6-month wait until judgement day.
The Ross River Dene Council is seeking to quash the Decision Document and to get the project re-assessed through panel review. Should the challenge be successful, the Decision Document will be quashed and therefore not legally exist. This will bring the whole water licensing process to a halt until such time as a new Decision Document is issued by YESAB.
But in the meantime, one must proceed under the assumption that the current Decision Document stands and that the deadline for comments on the Water Licence application is three months from now.
YCS staff will be reviewing it and offering our comments and recommendations in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for more updates!
If anyone wants to volunteer and help, please contact the Lewis Rifkind, YCS Mining Analyst at mining@yukonconservation.ca.
