KGHM Ajax Mining has applied for an environmental permit from the British Columbia Environmental Assessment Office and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency for the Ajax project near Kamloops.
The open-cast copper and gold mine is wholly owned by KGHM Ajax, a joint venture company between Abacus Mining & Exploration that holds a 20% interest, with KGHM Polska Miedz owning the remaining 80%.
According to KGHM Ajax Mining, prior to the review, the application will undergo a one-month screening.
Once reviews are completed and addressing, comments have been received from the agencies, the environmental application will begin a technical review by regulators and will then be made available to the public.
The review process is expected to take around 12 months.
KGHM Ajax will also fund an independent third-party review of the application, which would be carried out by the city of Kamloops that would manage the process independently. Kamloops has obtained the services of global environmental consultancy SLR Consulting this review.
At the Ajax project, the majority of basic engineering work is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
Once the review process is complete and all required permits are in-place, a decision will be taken over mine construction.
KGHM expects to secure all permits in 2016 and 2017.
Image: The Ajax project is a proposed open-pit copper-gold mine in British Columbia. Photo: courtesy of ajaxmine.ca.
