Silvertip Mine Permitting and Site Support
Client
Coeur Silvertip Holdings Ltd.
Location
British Columbia
Project Duration
January 2015 – Ongoing
Background
The Silvertip Project is an underground silver, lead, and zinc mine in northern British Columbia (BC). The Site is located approximately nine kilometers south of the Yukon border, and 90 kilometers southwest of Watson Lake, Yukon Territory, within the Silvertip Creek valley in the Tootsee River watershed. Project construction started in December 2015, and commissioning began in September 2016. Silvertip was acquired by Coeur Mining in October 2017. At the end of 2018, the Project received a permit to double the mining rate. Coeur plans to increase its investment in exploration with the goal of growing Silvertip’s high-grade deposit, extending its mine life, and carrying out a feasibility study to evaluate an expansion of the mill to increase throughput, allowing for increased production. Following completion of these studies, expected restart of operations at Silvertip would be in 2023.
Services Provided
Hatfield has provided a range of consulting and strategic advisory services to support Coeur’s successful Mines Act, and effluent discharge permit amendments in 2016 and 2018. This has included responding to regulatory information requests, preparing and updating baseline characterization studies (climate, hydrology, groundwater, water quality), groundwater modelling, environmental effects assessments, drafting and updating the water monitoring and adaptive management plan (WMAMP), effluent discharge trigger action response plan (TARP), and Science-Based Environmental Benchmark (SBEB) development for selenium. Hatfield also provided site environmental management support services to the Silvertip Project since 2015. This has included installation and maintenance of surface water, climate and groundwater monitoring stations, environmental database management (EnviroData), automation of regulatory monthly reporting within EnviroData, regulatory annual reporting, provision of field training to Site environment staff, environmental monitoring support, water quality assessments (e.g., spill response), groundwater well licensing, water treatment performance evaluations, ecotoxicology studies, and mine auditing.
