Mount Polley Mining Corporation
Climate Impact & Sustainability Data (2014-08 to 2019-03)
Reporting Period: 2014-08 to 2019-03
Environmental Metrics
ESG Focus Areas
- Environmental
- Social
- Governance
Environmental Achievements
- Construction of a new foundational channel in Hazeltine Creek, designed with the foresight of re-establishing the creek as an aquatic and riparian habitat and planting adjacent soils.
- Removal of approximately 350,000 metric tonnes of tailings from Polley Flats and a small area in Reach 2.
- Construction of in-stream spawning habitat in upper Hazeltine Creek in 2017 and reintroduction of Polley Lake trout to the upper reaches of Hazeltine Creek in 2018 resulting in an estimated 4,890 adults spawning and producing an estimated 40,000 juvenile trout.
Social Achievements
- Extensive consultation with local First Nations and stakeholders on remedial objectives.
- Establishment of a temporary trout hatchery to supplement the Polley Lake population.
Governance Achievements
- Compliance with the Ministry of Environment & Climate Change Strategy (ENV) Pollution Abatement Order (107461), the Fisheries Act, the Environmental Management Act, and the Water Sustainability Act.
Climate Goals & Targets
Environmental Challenges
- TSF embankment breach resulting in the release of a slurry of water, tailings, and dam construction material impacting Hazeltine and Edney Creeks, Polley Lake, and Quesnel Lake.
- Physical impacts to creek habitats, including scour and deposition of materials.
- Loss of forest soils and riparian vegetation.
- Changes to soil and sediment composition, particularly low organic carbon content in Quesnel Lake.
- Uncertainty in the ecological risk assessment regarding risks to amphibians and benthic invertebrates and fish in Hazeltine Creek.
Mitigation Strategies
- Development of an adaptive remediation framework with a phased approach.
- Implementation of erosion control measures, including construction of a new creek channel.
- Removal of spilled tailings and construction of sediment control ponds.
- Ecological remediation, including soil improvement and revegetation techniques.
- Establishment of the Habitat Remediation Working Group (HRWG) for collaborative decision-making.
- Use of Habitat Equivalency Analysis (HEA) to calculate offsetting requirements.
- Ongoing monitoring through the Comprehensive Environmental Monitoring Plan (CEMP).