Alberta Coal

In early March the Alberta Government released their long awaited response to the Committee Report that they initiated on Coal Mining in the Eastern Slopes.  It seems they have caved in to public pressure, and mining activity will be stopped.   

No one really trusts them though... particularly in light of all the issues they have had on a range of topics.  Though the decision is good, it could easily be overturned in the future.  As things stand now, all new mining activity has been halted.  There are only four projects, that were in the midst of the review process, when the recent pause was undertaken.  These are allowed to move through the approval process and may or may not proceed.  Two are down in Crowsnest Pass...  Grassy Mountain and Tent Mountain.  These are proposals to re-open mines that previously operated.  The Grassy Mountain project put in a new haul road and invested a bunch of money, only to have the Federal Government refuse to approve it on environmental grounds.  Their appeal of that decision was also denied.  It seems unlikely this one will proceed.  

The Vista Mine near Hinton is exporting Thermal Coal to Asia.  This seems stupid given the fact that most countries are moving away from coal fired power generation.  That mine was in financial difficulty in recent months, but is still looking to expand.  Although it is an operating mine, it is my understanding that the expansion of the existing operation is not yet approved.  The fourth project is up in Grande Cache area.  It was originally to be an underground mine, but I'm really not certain that status of that one.

There were a couple of projects in my neck of the woods... not far from Nordegg.  They started doing some test drilling, put in some roads, and cleared off a bunch of forest.  These will not be permitted to proceed, at least in the foreseeable future.  I wonder how much compensation the taxpayer might be on the hook for...?  And, unfortunately some damage has already been done.

Here is a link to an article prepared by the Narwhal...

https://thenarwhal.ca/alberta-coal-mining-report/