Orca Sand & Gravel Project
Introduction
The Orca Sand and Gravel project represents the potential development of a large sand and gravel resource to produce high quality construction aggregates for export to the coastal city markets of North America, particularly California.
A production capacity of approximately 4 – 6,000,000 tonnes per annum is envisaged with all products leaving the site in large ocean-going bulk carriers, which will be loaded at a dedicated facility to be constructed on the adjacent foreshore.
The Project is located on the western edge of Port McNeill and covers approximately 350 hectares of land that was clear-cut logged approximately 50 years ago. The site lies principally between Highway 19 and the Cluxewe River and will be connected to the nearby foreshore facility by conveyors.
Impacts and Benefits Agreement
Orca Sand & Gravel and Kwakiutl Band Signed IBA in March 2005, which allows for:
- Preferential employment for 25% of the jobs for Kwakiutl
- Preferential business opportunities
- On-going training for 5 years to help upgrade skills
Location
The site lies immediately alongside Highway 19, the Island Highway, form which there is easy and excellent access. It is 3.8 km. west of the centre of Port McNeill, and industrial and logging town on the northeast coast of Vancouver Island. the mineral resource and proposed processing plant area lie to the south of Highway 19. Products will be transported under the highway by conveyor to the stockpiling ship loading facilities, which will be situated north of the highway. The ship loading facility will be situated on tidewater within Broughton Straight, part of the “Inside Passage”, a deep navigable body of water regularly used by large vessels, particularly during the summer cruising season.
First Nations’ Involved
The Orca Project lies within the asserted territories of the Kwakiutl and Namgis First Nations. Polaris has shared its ideas for the Project from the outset in an open and constructive way with these two First Nations and considers the relationship with them to be extremely important. The development of the aggregates operation would offer considerable economic benefits for these communities.
Following the very successful model of Eagle Rock Materials and the First nations’ involvement in that company, Polaris has executed Cooperation Agreements with both the Kwakiutl and the Namgis. This has enabled them to complete an independent initial project due diligence through a major consulting firm with funding from Polaris. It is anticipated that a tripartite joint venture agreement will shortly be entered into, however, the First Nations must first approve the detailed operating environmental mitigation plans, which will be completed as sit investigations advance.
There is a well-developed campground with cabins at the mouth of the Cluxewe River on the Kwakiutl First nation reserve, IR 7 Klickseeway. The ship loading facility location has been selected so that it is some 1.6 km. east of the campground and hidden from the line of sight by the topography of the shoreline. The processing plant area is over 2 km. from the campground.
Both First nation communities have expressed support for the project and stand to receive significant economic benefits from its development.
Project Details
Operations
Of the 350 hectares of land associated with the project, the mineral extraction area totals approximately 200 hectares and the processing plant, product stockpiles and conveyors an addition 40 hectares. The remainder will be undisturbed margins and easements left around the site to either screen the operations from view or protect features such as the Cluxewe River. The first stage of operations is to clear an initial area of forest cover and then to remove and store the organic overburden layer from the top of the deposit to expose the sand and gravel. This will be extracted from the pit face using mobile plant, most probably wheeled loaders, to place the “pit-run” material onto a file conveyor system for delivery to the processing plant.
Processing involves mixing with water to liberate the same from the gravel which is then screened with any oversized gravels being crushed. The sand is classified and dewatered to remove silt sized fractions with the wash water being sent to sedimentations ponds for settling out of any silt and recycling of the wash water. The sources of the process water will be natural precipitation retained in the settling ponds with any additional make-up water required during dry summer periods to be obtained from boreholes within the resource area. The clean sand and gravel products will then be conveyed to a stockpile area to await loading onto a ship. The most advantageous aspects of this project are that there appears to be a very little silt material in the deposit and the site lends itself to progressive reclamation of the land back to productive forest cover.
The production operations will be carried out on a two-shift basis totalling 16 hours per day and up to seven days per week. There will be no nighttime production. The construction aggregates industry has a seasonal component with demand being somewhat higher during the summer six months than in the corresponding winter period. The operation will not be expected to produce during the weekends in winter but must have the flexibility to do so during summer if seasonal demand requires this. Ship loading will take place around the clock when a vessel is at the berth.
