VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – The British Columbia provincial government on Thursday refused to issue Polish base metals miner KGHM Polska Miedź’s Ajax copper/gold mine a provincial environmental certificate, saying the adverse effects of the project outweigh the potential benefits.

The news is a blow to the nearby City of Kamloops as about 1 800 contractors and 500 potentially well-paying permanent jobs would have been created.

Environment and Climate Change Strategy Minister George Heyman and Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources Minister Michelle Mungall in a joint statement revealed that the Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) has found 53 residual and cumulative adverse effects across environmental, economic, social, heritage and health areas, with 21 of these effects rating moderate to high in magnitude.

The EAO, which undertook the assessment on behalf of the provincial and federal governments, also said it has low confidence that the company will be able to mitigate 9 out of 21 high-to-moderate-magnitude adverse effects.

The provincial ministers also noted that the close proximity of the 1 700-ha Ajax openpit to the City of Kamloops, particularly being only 10 km from the neighbourhood of Aberdeen, including an elementary school, would mean that the adverse effects would not likely be mitigated to an acceptable level and would therefore present an unacceptable risk.

Further, the project is located on the traditional territories of four Aboriginal groups, who regard the lands as sacred. The EAO noted the "high importance" the area has to local First Nation groups with its development likely to have had a significant effect on their heritage and right to use the land and resources for traditional purposes.

The federal Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna also issued a separate statement on Thursday recommending against the project. The Minister has referred the project back to the responsible authorities, Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Natural Resources Canada, who must now seek a final decision from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Cabinet on whether the project can proceed.

KGHM started the Ajax environmental assessment process in February 2011, proposing to build an operation that will produce about three-billion pounds of copper and 2.7-million ounces gold at a yearly production rate of 106-million pounds copper and 99 400 oz of gold. Capital expenditure is estimated at $795-million, while mine life is 23 years.

Ajax will process the ore on site, with the concentrator to have 60 000 t/d throughput. The Ajax copper/gold project has National Instrument 43-101-compliant proven and probable reserves of 503-million metric tons, grading 0.27% copper and 0.17 g/t gold.