Silvertip Mine Permitting and Site Support
Client
Coeur Silvertip Holdings Ltd.
Location
British Columbia
Project Duration
January 2015 – Ongoing
Background
The Silvertip Project is an underground silver, lead, and zinc mine in northern British Columbia (BC). The Site is located approximately 9 km south of the Yukon border and 90 km southwest of Watson Lake, Yukon Territory within the Silvertip Creek valley, in the Tootsee River watershed. Project construction started in December 2015 and commissioning began in September 2016. Silvertip was acquired by Coeur Mining in October 2017. At the end of 2018 the Project received a permit to double the mining rate. Coeur plans to increase its investment in exploration with the goal of growing Silvertip’s high-grade deposit and extending its mine life and carry out a feasibility study to evaluate an expansion of the mill to increase throughput, allowing for increased production. Following completion of these studies, expected restart of operations at Silvertip would be in late 2021.
Services Provided
Hatfield has provided a range of consulting and strategic advice services to support Coeur’s successful Mines Act and effluent discharge permit amendments in 2016 and 2018. This has included responding to regulatory information requests, preparing and updating baseline characterization studies (climate, hydrology, groundwater, water quality), groundwater modelling, and environmental effects assessments. Hatfield also has provided site environmental management support services to the Silvertip Project since 2015. This has included installation of surface water, climate and groundwater monitoring stations, environmental database management (EnviroData), regulatory annual reporting, provision of field training to Site environment staff, environmental monitoring and maintenance support, water quality assessments, groundwater well licensing, water treatment performance evaluations, ecotoxicology studies, mine auditing, Science-Based Environmental Benchmark (SBEB) development plan preparation, and updating and auditing of monitoring and adaptive management plans (trigger action response plans).
