Coal company makes case to City SPC
By Tim Kalinowski on June 24, 2021.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDtkalinowski@lethbridgeherald.com Atrum Coal chief development officer Tony Mauro and consultant Vlad Grigore presented to the Economic Standing Policy Committee of city council on Wednesday to address local concerns about the environmental and water impacts of its proposed metallurgical coal mine in the Oldman River watershed.“We are a responsible mineral developer with a focus on metallurgical coal in Alberta and British Columbia,” Mauro (who is no relation to Coun. Joe Mauro) began. We value open, sustained and transparent communication with all of our stakeholders.”
Mauro than pivoted back to one common criticism of all the proposed coal mines currently seeking approval in Alberta– that they are foreign-owned entities which have no stake in Alberta when the clean up bill for the proposed mines comes due.
“Our employees live and work in Alberta,” stated Mauro. “We are publicly listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, but our employees do live in Alberta.”
Mauro then spoke about the specific concerns many Lethbridge residents have regarding the environmental impact of Atrum’s Elan mine and, in particular, selenium contamination in local water sources from the mining.
“We are committed to conservation and stewardship, and that is really what we have always been about,” he said. “Protecting the environment; we have heard loud and clear from Albertans of all walks of life this is an important topic to them. We wanted to make sure we presented our view that we do prioritize mitigation of impacts from mining operations. We do this through our own strong, environmental management practices.”
Mauro went on to speak about the importance Atrum puts in gathering strong baseline data before mining to understand what impacts its operations are having on the local environment and watersheds to be able to mitigate those impacts at the project’s end of life. He then restated Minister of Environment and Parks Jason Nixon’s assertion that water allocations on the Oldman River would not be changed for coalmining, and that current users would be ensured priority access before any type of allocation that might be available to a mining company or other industrial use. Atrum would follow any and all provincial government guidelines in that respect, Mauro said.
As for concerns about selenium contamination, Mauro said his company will invest in strong secondary water treatment facilities to ensure the selenium being released by mining operations falls within Alberta government and new impending federal government regulations.
“We do take the protection and conservation of water very seriously,” he stated. “It’s first and foremost in our preliminary planning. The big topic is selenium. It is a naturally occurring, non-metallic mineral that is found in rocks, soil and water throughout Alberta, and released when it comes in to contact with oxygenated waters. Our project design prioritizes maintaining water quality parameters, including selenium and nitrates, at their current levels. We would never design a facility that would seek to increase the levels of selenium.”
After Mauro concluded his presentation, Mayor Chris Spearman responded by asking for hard numbers from Mauro as to how Atrum intended to get the selenium out when most commentators say the technology does not exist yet to do what they are saying.
“Our whole economy (in Lethbridge) is based on agriculture, agricultural food production,” said Spearman;”there is more than a million cattle. We have got dozens of international food processors that have invested here which uses water primarily from the Oldman River. So our big concern is there is billions of dollars invested in the existing economy that is very susceptible to any form of environmental contamination, and specifically elevated forms of selenium– a massive risk, as we see it, to having coal upstream from our economic way of life.”
Spearman said he also had concerns about the financial sustainability of Atrum– pointing out it was a “penny stock” which has last 80 per cent of its value in the past few years, and which has recently lost all its financial underwriters due to risk concerns about its ability to deal with the mitigation of selenium contamination.
“So how can you tell us you are spending money on advanced forms of environmental mitigation?” asked Spearman. “Do you have a robust lab somewhere that is investigating progressive forms of selenium mitigation? Where is that information?”
Mauro admitted he did not have that information to publicly disclose during Wednesday’s SPC meeting, but Atrum would be bringing that information forward if the approvals process moves further along.
“That’s the best I can do at this stage of the game,” he said. “We don’t have a whole lot of data for it. We are still at the point of collecting it. Our information with respect to the experts we do not have a specific lab, but we have retained experts who do have specific labs that are designed specifically around selenium capture and treatment, and have been involved in numerous successful treatment facilities in Canada and the western U.S. At the appropriate time, we would be more than happy to bring those forward in the regulatory construct, and to the various concerned municipalities, to share how we will address these concerns going forward.” Follow @TimKalHerald on Twitter 4
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