While Teck Resources Ltd. says it has not completed a two-year feasibility study on the reopening of its Quintettte coal mine near Tumbler Ridge, construction crews are already onsite and it appears the Vancouver-based company is confident of a start-up.
Vancouver-based Teck applied for a B.C. Mines Act permit in April and says it does not expect approval until the second half of next year. The company’s own feasibility study will be finished this fall.
“We are doing a lot of work [at the Quintette site]," said Mike Connelly, a construction superintendent with the Kelowna office of Flynn Canada Ltd., who said crews have been on site for months “working on a number of the buildings.”
Tech has confirmed that trucks, shovels and drills have been ordered and preliminary on-site work has commenced. The Quintette mine closed in 2000 due to low coal prices.
Teck senior vice president of coal, Ian Kilgour told a Tumbler Ridge public hearing in April, as the mining permit application was being made that, should the permit be approved, Quintette would require a workforce of about 500 and would be in production for 12 years.
The mine would boost demand for housing in Tumbler Ridge, since Teck has no plans to provide staff accomodation.
Teck would prefer to have employees invest in their own housing, said Kilgour. “We’ll look at incentives for employees to buy their own houses,” he said, noting programs around subsidies, loans, and other options are still on the table.
Teck employees have already purchased some houses, apartments and lots for development in Tumbler Ridge, and Teck is open to working on acquiring Crown land, Kilgour said.
