Proposed mine could be bane, not boom, to area

Letter to the Editor:

Geodex Minerals Ltd. recently announced feasibility studies of a tungsten and molybdenum pit mine near Napadogan. The mine is located on the Sisson Brook at the headwaters of the Nashwaak River
[New Brunswick].

This project is of concern to everyone in the entire Nashwaak River Valley. Once this mine begins, the Nashwaak River will be under threat from the mine's byproducts for centuries.

The threat comes chiefly from the finely crushed rock dust known as tailings. The tailings are generally stored underwater in a tailings pond. This particular pond would eventually cover 2,000 acres to a depth of 15 metres.

Once a tailings pond is started, it is an extremely dangerous threat until the mine is closed and the pond is drained, covered with rock and soil and reforested.

However, there are also problems with the rosy economic picture painted by Geodex. Geodex predicts that the mine will generate 750 construction jobs for a period of one to two years. It will also create 300 full-time jobs for the 30 year lifespan of the mine.

The job forecast is attractive to many due to the dismal state of the forest industry and the local employment picture. However, a closer look at the history of the price of molybdenum shows the risky nature of this venture.

Feasibility studies by Wardrop Engineering indicate a processing cost exceeding $9.30 per pound of refined molybdenum at the Geodex mine. Over the past 95 years, the inflation adjusted price of molybdenum has averaged $11.20 per pound with a median price of $9.80 (USGS data).

The historical price has been above $9.30 per pound in only 55 of those years. Fluctuating prices and small profit margins have resulted in closure and long periods of inactivity at similar mines elsewhere.

An inactive mine leaves workers and communities to wither in the downturn. An inactive mine extends the vulnerability of the toxic tailings pond much beyond the 30-year life of the mine. The probability of disaster at an inactive mine is greatly increased.

Sacrificing the ecological security of the Nashwaak River Valley for another boom/bust industry is the wrong direction into the future. People of the Upper and Lower Nashwaak River Valleys would do well to give this project a hard look.

One engineering miscalculation or one lapse in maintenance of the tailings would imperil a treasure that has, for several centuries, transformed the harsh life of this climate into a quality of life envied across this country.

Lawrence Wuest, Stanley