Faro Mine: Monthly Archives - November 2007
Whitehorse Star: Firm interested in safeguarding mine site
November 29, 2007
By Chuck Tobin, Whitehorse Star
Alexco Resources Corp. is one of two parties that will be invited to bid on the job to look after the bankrupt Faro mine for three years, until a final closure plan can be implemented.
Alexco was one of nine companies or conglomerates that submitted applications to qualify for the final list of companies that were shortlisted to bid on the three-year care and maintenance contract.
Stephen Mead, the senior project manager overseeing the Faro Mine Closure office, said recently the team wanted to qualify three companies for the final bid.
But after a month-long review of the nine submissions, it was determined Alexco and Dennison Environmental Services of Elliott Lake, Ont. were the only two submissions containing what the closure office was looking for, Mead said.
"The other seven did not qualify," he said. "They failed in one or more of the minimum standards that were set."
Alexco, a company with executive roots in the Yukon, is currently spending millions upon millions of dollars to pursue its goal of restarting mining operations at United Keno Hill mines in the Elsa area.
Mining ceased in January 1989.
Alexco is named as the lead authority in a consortium involving four other companies.
They include Epcor, a national company with extensive experience in water delivery and waste water treatment; SNC Lavalin, an internationally recognized engineering and construction firm with ties to Yukon first nations; and the development corporations of both the Selkirk and Ross River first nations.
Dennison, Mead explained, is instrumental in the ongoing closure plans for Elliott Lake's uranium mines and currently provides all the care and maintenance for the sites.
He said while Alexco and Dennison must remain the lead companies, they are still able to add more companies to their team.
The two lead companies will be invited to submit final proposals early in the new year for the three years of care and maintenance work. It's expected the winning proposal would be selected sometime next spring.
The bankrupt and abandoned Faro mine is currently under the management of the court-approved receiver, Deloitte and Touche.
The company will asking the court to remove it from its responsibilities at the Faro mine in February 2009. The care and maintenance of the mine site currently costs about $7 million annually.
The Faro Mine Closure office is seeking a company to take over the care and maintenance work from 2009 to 2012, when work on the final closure plan is expected to start.
Permanent closure options for the tailings area and the three large open pits are under review currently.
It's estimated final closure of the once-great economic pillar for the territory will cost Canadians anywhere from half a billion to a billion dollars, over decades.
It's widely accepted that under any of the closure options, regular monitoring of the reclaimed site would be required until the end of time.
The schedule calls for finalization of the closure plan in 2009.
It's expected it will require three years to move the plan through the necessary environmental review and permitting process, with implementation beginning in 2012.
There will be another bid to select a company for the final closure contract.
The federal government is paying $13.5 million for work at the Faro mine this year, of which $7 million is dedicated to care and maintenance, with the remainder going to planning and research into the closure options.
Federal taxpayers have been covering the babysitting fees since Ottawa declared the mine abandoned by the bankrupt Anvil Range Mining Co.
The mine closed in 1998. Mining first began at the site in 1969.
Originally published Monday, November 26, 2007. Reprinted with Permission.