It’s the second administrative penalty against the mining company in the past three years for excesses of the heavy metal into Hedley Creek
Barrick Gold has been hit with a fine of $114,750 for exceeding the amount of cobalt in the effluent from its decommissioned Nickel Plate gold mine outside Hedley, B.C.
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Cobalt is essential to both human and animal life but is toxic at high concentrations, and is especially detrimental to invertebrate aquatic species that are a key food source for salmonids.
Barrick has been trying to find ways to reduce the amount of cobalt in the mine tailings for years, but has been hindered by a lack of a scientific solution to the problem.
That’s because the type of cobalt generated at Nickel Plate Mine is a complex compound rather than free cobalt, which is easier to filter out. Barrick also argued that complex cobalt is more inert and therefore less of an environmental hazard.
It’s also complained that the revised limit for cobalt — a heavy metal with potential to harm the aquatic environment at high levels — that was introduced in 2004 is unreasonably low and is difficult to achieve. But the ministry noted Barrick has never applied to have the limit increased and continued to allow repeated excesses of cobalt to be released into Hedley Creek.
The penalty assessment noted Barrick has known it can apply for a change to the cobalt limit for at least a decade but has not done so.
The Toronto-based multinational mining company was previously cited for dozens of cobalt limit breaches at Nickel Plate Mine between February 2019 and September 2020 and was issued a $35,000 fine for those infractions in 2022.
Barrick said at the time of that investigation it was working on a new water treatment system at the mine but that work has not been completed.
Nickel Plate Mine was an underground and later an open pit gold mine that was in intermittent operation from the early 1900s until it ceased operations in 1996. Barrick is responsible for treating effluent from the site and is monitored regularly for compliance with the Environmental Management Act.