St Barbara (ASX: SBM) is threatening to put its gold mine in Nova Scotia on care and maintenance if the provincial minister of environment and climate change doesn’t approve its plan to us the Touquoy open pit for tailings disposal.
The Touquoy pit will be mined out by the end of the year, and as an interim solution, the company has proposed to raise the existing tailings dam until the in-pit deposition matter is settled. The province issued final conditions for the dam lift last August. That allows milling to continue through the second half of the year.
St Barbara says that providing all the information required by the minister would take more time than is available before capacity of the existing tailings management facility is reached in early 2024. Thus, the need to cease operations.
The company noted that the Touquoy mine is the only operating gold mine in Nova Scotia, located about 80 km northeast of Halifax, N.S. When it is mined out, there are three additional deposits – Beaver Dam, Fifteen Mile Stream and Cochrane Hill – that could have a combined mine life to 2030. Should those projects be developed, the logical place to create a new tailings management area is within the mined out pit. The company is also exploring in the Moose River corridor and elsewhere in the province.
Learn more at www.StBarbara.com.au.
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