"Legal challenge filed against decision allowing KSM mine to proceed", 2 December 2024

...Ecojustice recently filed a judicial review on behalf of SkeenaWild Conservation Trust and the Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission (SEITC), challenging the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office’s (EAO) decision that the proposed Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell (KSM) mine is “substantially started.” 

The KSM mine is proposed by KSM Mining ULC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Seabridge Gold. If built, the KSM mine would become one of the world’s largest gold-copper mines, with four open pits, two underground mines, and massive tailings ponds with earthen dams over 700 feet high. These ponds would store 2.3 billion tonnes of tailings waste...

The mine’s location threatens the Nass and Unuk rivers, which support several species of Pacific salmon and eulachon and are vital to nearby communities for culture, subsistence, recreation, and their local economies....

Under B.C.’s Environmental Assessment Act, projects must be substantially started within a set period or their environmental certificates expire. If the certificate lapses, the proponent must complete a new environmental assessment using current information, laws, and science. In the case of KSM, its environmental assessment predates significant legislative changes, such as the updated Environmental Assessment Act and the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, and a deeper understanding of climate change, threats to salmon populations, and lessons learned from the Mount Polley mine tailings disaster....

The group also says that the EAO considered irrelevant information in making its decision, including the company’s assertion that a substantial start decision would support the company’s efforts in securing a joint venture partner for project funding.... 

The British Columbia First Nation Tsetsaut Skii km Lax Ha has also recently filed a legal challenge to the EAO’s substantial start determination, arguing they were inadequately consulted. The mining company plans to store the mine’s waste within Tsetsaut Skii km Lax Ha traditional territory in the Upper Nass River area. 

The legal challenge seeks to overturn the EAO’s decision, ensuring that projects like KSM are assessed under current environmental laws and using up to date information and science...