HD Mining puts Murray River mining project on the shelf

TUMBLER RIDGE, B.C. — A B.C. coal project that weathered controversy over its plans to bring in temporary foreign workers is being put on hold.

According to the Globe and Mail, the 51 temporary foreign workers hired for HD Mining’s Murray River project have left Tumbler Ridge and returned to China.

The proponent had plans to hire up to 201 workers from China to carry out a bulk sample at the site. A job posting for work at the mine included Mandarin as a language requirement, which saw great controversy.

At that time, HD Mining said it needed Chinese workers with experience in a method known as ‘longwall mining’ — a process during which a long wall of coal is mined in a single slice, rather than the “room-and-pillar” method more widely used in Canadian coal mines.

The extracted coal sample out of a bulk sample program HD Mining “is being tested for coal quality and marketability,” Jody Shimkus, HD Mining’s vice-president of environment and regulatory affairs, said Monday in an e-mail to the Globe.

South of Tumbler Ridge, the mine site is being put into ‘care and maintenance’ until it receives required federal environmental approvals, provincial mine permits and market conditions improve, she said, adding that all foreign workers on the project have returned home.

Two unions in B.C. asked the Federal Court of Canada to overturn documents, known as labour market opinions that were issued by the federal government and cleared the way for the Chinese workers to come to British Columbia.

Lawyers for the labour groups questioned whether the employer could have found Canadian workers. In response, HD Mining said that it had a plan in place to transition to Canadian workers, although the company expected it would take 10 years until they wouldn’t need temporary foreign workers any longer.

The application was dismissed in a May 2013 decision, the Federal Court finding that the officer who issued the labour market opinions ‘did not make any unreasonable assessment’ when issuing the documents.

In 2014, the Conservative government split the program in two. This move resulted in the International Mobility Program aimed at more highly skilled workers, and other changes to the program, including caps on how many foreign workers could be hired.

B.C. approved the Murray River project last fall, when it issued an environmental assessment certificate.