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. Exploration and mining activity in the area dates to the 1960s. Construction of the existing Project started in 2015, and commissioning began in 2016. Silvertip was acquired by Coeur Mining in 2017. At the end of 2018, the Project received a permit to double the mining rate. Following several years of operation, Coeur suspended mining and processing activities at Silvertip in early 2020 and has since commenced evaluation of a larger potential expansion and mine restart through an ongoing underground exploration project.
Services Provided
Hatfield has provided a range of consulting and strategic advisory services to support Coeur’s Mines Act, and Environmental Management Act permit amendments since 2016 (winter operations, mining rate increase, Phase 1 and Phase 2 underground exploration). This has included preparing and updating baseline characterization studies (climate, hydrology, groundwater, water quality), groundwater modelling, environmental effects assessments, technical and advisory support for the permitting process, drafting and updating the water monitoring and adaptive management plan (WMAMP), an effluent discharge trigger action response plan (TARP), support for determination of Site Performance Objectives (SPOs) and evaluation of potential water quality effects of legacy site activities prior to the 2015 mine restart. Hatfield has 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, provision of field training to site environment staff, environmental monitoring support, environmental database management (EnviroData), automation of regulatory monthly reporting, regulatory annual reporting, water quality assessments (e.g., spill response), groundwater well licensing, water treatment performance evaluations, and ecotoxicology studies.