Imperial Metals at Coyote Creek
The controversial Red Chris mine will go ahead. The Red Chris mine is exempt from the recent decision by the Supreme Court of Canada which says that the federal government requires environmental studies on mining projects.
The question is, what about the other projects in the area known as the Sacred Headwaters? This area is at the confluence of the Skeena, Nass and Stikine Rivers – three major rivers that are vital fish bearing habitat. Several native groups such as the Tahltan protested against these mining projects, but most of the media has been focused on their battle against Shell Canada.
Where Stikine, Nass and Skeena Rivers meet
Will the federal government require that these other projects go through environmental assessments? What will be the impact of using streams and lakes as tailing ponds?
The noted ethnobotanist, Wade Davis did a story for National Geographic on this area:
The only other place I know where such a wonder of geography occurs is in Tibet, where from the base of Mount Kailas arise three of the great rivers of Asia – the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra – vital arteries that bring life to more than a billion people downstream. Revered by Hindu, Buddhist and Jain, Kailas is considered so sacred that no one is allowed to walk on its slopes, let alone climb to its summit. The thought of violating its flanks with industrial development would represent for all peoples of Asia an act of desecration beyond all imagining. Anyone who would even dare propose such a deed would face the most severe of sanctions, in both this world and the next.
In Canada, we treat the land quite differently. Against the wishes of all First Nations, the B.C. government has opened the Sacred Headwaters to industrial development.
To read more about this area, go to www.sacredland.org/klabona or www.firstnations.de/mining/tahltan-klabona.htm
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