Miner Details (March 16, 1992)

British Columbia doesn’t make the front page of international newspapers often, but it has in recent months, and the stories are not flattering ones. As any environmentally aware Londoner can tell you, we have clear-cut all our forests and are now preparing to build a huge open pit mine to produce tons of toxic waste and some byproduct copper in an earthquake zone on the banks of the world’s last unspoiled river.

One of the disturbing developments here is that most of our major companies and many juniors are rushing off to Mexico, Chile, or anywhere to develop new mines. And politicians fail to understand that companies won’t explore here if they can’t mine what they find.

Take the case of Windy Craggy, the copper deposit that green groups want to lock up in a park. The province’s mines minister says she is “studying” the idea. And having brought Windy Craggy to international attention by techniques bordering on propaganda, the green activists fully expect they will be successful. After all, they easily stopped Cream Silver Mines from drilling prospective claims on Vancouver Island and had no problem convincing the government to make them part of a park.

The story isn’t over yet, though. The Supreme Court of British Columbia has affirmed Cream Silver’s right to compensation for its expropriated asset, and if this is upheld in appeal, the province’s taxpayers will pay the bill. This turn of events is ringing alarm bells in Victoria, where a new government has pledged to double parkland and settle native land claims. But it has not given much thought to details like property rights, compensation, investor confidence and the cost of alienating resources. And the government knows taxpayers won’t take kindly to these lurking costs, particularly when the economy is sour and more and more jobs are on the line.

That brings us back to Windy Craggy. The company that owns the rich deposit says it will seek compensation of up to $1.4 billion if its property is expropriated. If the government locks up this valuable resource, taxpayers should not have to pay for such stupidity. Let the green groups that want the park pay the bill.