The proposed Arctos anthracite coal mine in the Sacred Headwaters may be finding it difficult to attract investors and is now resorting to misdirection, according to the Tahltan Central Council.
Fortune Minerals Ltd. president and CEO Robin Goad, in a video interview with Mining.com, described the First Nations involved as follows.
“There are two aboriginal groups in the area,” Goad said in the video interview. “There are the Tahltan and they are a very divided community, whereas, the Gitxsan, which also [are] impacted by our development, are very supportive of our project.”
Goad’s comment was countered by Annita McPhee, president of the Tahltan Central Council.
“The Tahltan are united in protecting the Klappan,” McPhee said. “It’s pretty obvious. At our [annual general meeting] last year we all came together in the decision that this is an area that is completely off limits for any industrial project.
“This, to me, is [Goad] trying to drum up interest one more time.”
The Arctos project, which was previously named Klappan Coal, is in the environmental assessment process currently.
Arctos was shut down by Tahltan and Gitxsan and other concerned people who were camped near the exploration camp last summer.
“We had a protest group up ... interfering with our work program and interfering with our ability to collect drill samples,” Goad said in the video. “We were the subject of protest for probably about 60 days and then we decided to let the government of British Columbia follow through with their process to find a negotiated settlement and that’s ongoing right now between the government and the Tahltan Nation.”
Some Gitxsan hereditary chiefs are working with Fortune, who hope to create a railway through to Tahltan territory, but more than two school busloads of Hazelton area people, including many Gitxsan attended the opposition camp in the Sacred Headwaters, last summer, Shannon McPhail, executive director of Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition said.
Goad stated more than $100 million has been invested in the Arctos project, which has funded test mining and other preparatory planning and research.
Goad could not be reached before press time regarding the statements made in the video.