GLNCY Glencore Plc (PK)

By Robb M. Stewart

Glencore PLC's plans to develop an open-cut mine in Western Canada producing steelmaking coal have been rejected by the provincial and federal governments over environmental concerns.

A spokesman for Glencore said Thursday the mining company would review the decisions made by the governments of Canada and British Columbia before determining the next steps for its Sukunka project.

The province said an environmental assessment certificate wouldn't be issued for the project in northeastern British Columbia following an environmental assessment concluded that key mitigation measures proposed by Glencore would be unlikely to reduce the potential negative effects of the project to an acceptable level. Ottawa similarly said it found that significant adverse environmental effects of the proposed mine couldn't be mitigated, so the project can't proceed.

British Columbia's assessment report concluded the project was expected to see mercury and selenium discharge into local waterbodies and would be harmful to Southern Mountain caribou and their habitat and result in increased deaths of grizzly bears. It also said the project would negatively affect the use of land and resources for traditional purposes and health and socio-economic conditions of indigenous peoples.

Glencore proposed an open-pit mine that would have an estimated life of up to 20 years and would provide a capital investment of about 450 million Canadian dollars ($330.6 million), which it said would bring economic benefits to, particularly for the people and First Nations communities in northeastern British Columbia. The project would have produced three million metric tons of hard coking coal a year for export.

The federal government said Sukunka is one of several mining projects proposed for British Columbia, with nine projects currently undergoing federal review.

Glencore has a number of assets in Canada, including the Kidd copper and zinc mine and Sudbury Integrates Nickel Operations in Ontario, a copper refinery in Quebec and the Raglan nickel-copper operation in the Arctic region. Glencore's Brenda steelmaking coal project is in the application review phase with British Columbia's government, according to its website.

Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 22, 2022 10:51 ET (15:51 GMT)

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