A company is looking to build a mine in Limerick Township, but have run into a lot of problems.
Pancontinental Resources Corporation is an exploration company. They own the mineral rights to the area South of Highway 620, West of Old Hastings Road near Ormsby and going East to Highway 62. They have proposed a nickel, cobalt and copper mine in that area.
Layton Croft, the President and CEO of PanCon, says the area was active in the 1960s with more than 100 holes being dug during that decade, he says. In 1971, a mine was set to be put into production, but it never materialized. Croft says PanCon took over the area in the early 2000s.
“It’s premature to talk about a mine there. A lot of work needs to be done,” Croft says. He says they just want to understand what may or may not be there and what is mine-able. “Mining is a series of stages and we’re in the exploration stage,” Croft says. Ugo Lapointe, the Canada Program Coordinator for Minewatch Canada, says that, “for a mine to be brought on-stream now you significant capital and a sizable product which at the moment this one is not.”
Croft says that he is aware of the possible environmental impact. That’s why, he says, he brought in an independent contractor to do an environmental baseline test. “We’ve made a point to have no demonstrable impact on the land,” Croft says. Lapointe says that there are a lot of potential problems with the proposed mine. He says up to 5 million tonnes of mining waste could be left behind, which could leak into surface or underground water if not properly contained. Lapointe added that issues with dust, noise and the daily blasting that would be going on would be problematic as well. He added that a project like this may not be a good fit because it’s in Cottage Country. Croft said nothing will start until the environmental baseline test is done.
There have been allegations from the public that PanCon has been going onto people’s private property. Croft says he believes the allegations to be a misunderstanding. “To my knowledge, we have not encroached on any private property that is not within our project boundaries,” he says. Lapointe said that he has heard the same stories from the public. “I think there’s been a lot of mistakes done so far,” he said. Croft said he and his colleagues have been personally reaching out to anyone that has complained.
“We’re going to be very active so that there are fewer misunderstandings going forward,” Croft says. With PanCon being publicly traded company, so public disclosure is a regulatory requirement for them. “It’s in our interest to do things the right way,” Croft says.
A public information session will be held by PanCon for anyone that’s interested on September 9th at 4 PM at the Limerick Township Community Center.