Central Mountain Air will provide charter flights for Red Chris mine crews based on the latest air transport partnership agreement signed with the Tahltan Nation Development Corporation (TNDC) and Newcrest Mining.
The airline first provided charter services to Red Chris in 2012 and had an air transportation agreement with the previous operators of the mine, Imperial Metals Corp., since 2018.
The two-year agreement will see the same charter services extend to the new operator, Newcrest, which purchased Red Chris located in Tahltan territory in 2019.
Central Mountain Air, headquartered in Smithers, has operational facilities in Vancouver, Prince George, Calgary and Edmonton. Charter services for mining crews are provided weekly from several marshalling points – Vancouver, Nanaimo, Kamloops, Kelowna, Williams Lake, Prince George and Calgary – into Smithers, then on to Dease Lake.
The Red Chris flight charter contract cements the TNDC-Central Mountain Air partnership, established in September 2021.
The airline also provides charter flights to Skeena Resources’ Eskay Revitalization Project in the region. In addition to uniting the two long-established, economically-valued northwestern British Columbia businesses to serve resource projects in the region, the partnership paves the path for new aviation career opportunities for Tahltan people.
The air charter contract expands the services TNDC, the business arm of the Tahltan Nation, is providing at Red Chris in collaboration with business partners.
TNDC provides crew transport by highway coach between the Dease Lake Airport and mine site, tailings impoundment area construction, underground mining portal exploration, underground explosives, geotechnical and explorational drilling, and concentrate hauling.
The charter contract also complements TNDC’s growing air support business as the Dease Lake Airport contract operator.
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