Shares in Pacific Booker Minerals (TSX-V:BKM) are down 70% so far today, following a negative decision by the BC ministry of Environment and a two-day trade halt.
On Tuesday, the provincial ministries of Environment and Energy and Mines announced Pacific Booker’s Morrison Lake copper-gold mine near Smithers would not receive an environmental certificate.
Trading in Pacific Booker’s shares was halted by the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) for two days following the decision, at the request of the company.
When the trade halt was lifted this morning, a sell-off of the company’s shares began. At close of markets February 7, Pacific Booker’s shares were trading at $4.15 per share. As of 11 a.m. Pacific time today, February 10, they were down 70% to $1.25 per share.
It was the second time the provincial environment ministry has rejected the project by refusing an environmental certificate. It was refused before under the BC Liberal government in 2012. The ministry was forced to reconsider the decision, after Pacific Booker successfully appealed the previous decision.
But according to the ministry of Environment, Pacific Booker did not provide additional information required, as per a further assessment order, which means nothing has changed about the proposal that would convince the ministry to grant the certificate.
Meanwhile, some of the regulations and guidelines for tailings ponds have changed, thanks to the 2014 Mount Polley tailings pond collapse.
“Having reviewed the material provided to us, we have reached the same conclusion as our predecessors,” the ministry said in its decision February 8.
“We note that in the period following the further assessment order, PBM (Pacific Booker) did not provide an acceptable draft supplemental application information requirements, and so no further assessment was conducted. Accordingly, the materials provided to us are the same as those that were provided to the former ministers in advance of their 2015 decision.”
Supplemental information was required because, since the project was first rejected, the B.C. government tightened up regulations and guidelines around tailings ponds after the Mount Polley tailings pond failure.
The ministry says Pacific Booker has failed to provide the additional information required. One thing that hasn’t changed is concerns the ministry has had under both Liberal and NDP governments over the mine’s potential impact on Morrison Lake, which drains into Babine Lake – an important sockeye salmon lake.
The Lake Babine First Nation has been adamant in its opposition to the mine due to concerns over impact on the lake and its salmon.
“There remain uncertainties and risks to fish and water quality,” the ministry says in its decision. “In light of that uncertainly, we do not think it would be in the public interest to grant an EAC for the Morrison Mine.”
Pacific Booker entered the environmental review process in 2003 and was refused a certificate in 2012. The company launched a judicial review, and a BC Supreme Court ordered the government to reconsider, on the basis the process lacked procedural fairness.
But in 2015, when the ministry once again considered the application for an environmental certificate, things had changed.
“In July 2015, the former ministers reconsidered the decision, including the additional comments on the executive director’s reasons and recommendations as well as information on a panel report regarding the Mount Polley tailings dam breach. The former ministers determined that more information was required and issued an order under section… outlining requirements for further assessment of the Morrison Mine.”
In its decision this week not to issue an environmental certificate, the ministry said the company failed to provide required supplemental information. The ministry also reiterated concerns about impact on water and fish.
“There is insufficient data about Morrison Lake and the potential diminished long-term water quality in Morrison Lake was not an acceptable risk,” the ministries of Environment and Energy and Mines said in a joint news release.
“As PBM has not submitted additional information to demonstrate that risks to water quality and fish can be suitably mitigated by the Morrison copper/gold project, the ministers have decided not to issue an environmental assessment certificate.”
Pacific Booker CEO John Plourde told BIV News that he doesn't consider this week's decision the final nail in the project's coffin.
"That doesn't mean we're out of the ballpark," Plourde said. "I'm not giving up."
Whether that means another legal challenge or submitting an entirely new application through the BC Environmental Assessment process, Plourde said he wasn't sure yet what the company's next move would be.
