In view of the interest of members in mining museums, I felt
that the following excerpt from a two page spread in one of our
newpapers might be worth sharing.
The Province -News     Sunday, June 18, 2000
"-and the last shift at Britannia went down the tunnels on Nov. 1, 1974.

    The following year, the museum opened its doors.  Now 25,000
visitors come each year to sample life underground on a 400-metre tunnel
train ride.
    The Britannia Mine has left what environmentalists say is a
continuing disastrous legacy.
    Acidic water, containing high levels of copper and zinc, flows from
the mine into Howe Sound.
    Environmental Ministry official, Bary Azevedo, told the Province
that the existing owner, Copper Beach Estates, has failed to comply with
a clean-up order.
    The ministry is now in talks with mining companies and their
successors in an effort to raise the $25 million needed to build and
operate a treatment plant."

        Over the past year there has been continuing controversy as
environmentalists opposed the efforts of Copper Beach Estates to obtain
a permit to use the open pit part of the mine as a dump for waste
materials (it was implied that some of these materials are "hazardous
wastes").  Of course, without revenue, it is unlikely that this company
will do much about the cleanup.

        Although I have apologized for "talking through my hat", this
may give some background to explain the tone of some of my comments.  My
continued use of the word mercenaries should make it clear just whom I
was attacking.  After trying to defend the industry to
environmentalists, I am suffering from a guilty conscience.  I am
tempted to believe that Copper Beach Estates was set up as a ploy to get
mining companies "off the hook".  Please note that our government has
been unwilling to spend any money to clean up this problem, although
they have wasted many millions of dollars on failed mega-projects.

        The argument that water is polluted naturally where mines don't
exist, really doesn't work.  In various places around B.C., I have seen
"tiny" streamlets that had too much mineral content for drinking, but
these weren't nearly the torrents of polluted water that I have seen
pouring out of both the Britannia Mine and the Sullivan Mine.



%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%