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Grand Forks' city council seeking info on mining materials

Grand Forks received info from the Ministry of Forests regarding exploratory drilling in the North Fork area.
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Coun. Bob Kendel (centre) was acting mayor for Jan. 9’s Grand Forks city council meeting.

Jan. 9’s Grand Forks city council meeting was missing two members – Mayor Brian Taylor and Coun. Michael Wirischagin – and Coun. Bob Kendel sat in as acting mayor.

Quorum (minimum number of council members needed) is four.

The city received email correspondence from the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources requesting comment on two mineral exploration sites in the North Fork Road area.

The mineral exploration by North American Stone Inc. would take place in an area near the Granby River, 30 kilometres up North Fork Road and 500 metres up a trail.

The other, in an area 27 kilometres up the same road and 1,000 metres up a trail past Lynch Creek Road.

According to information provided by the city, both would involve surface drilling of granite rock and the ministry advised the city that an application was made and sought comment.

Coun. Neil Krog wondered if it was possible to see if there was a storm water management plan (something recommended by city staff) and Chief Administrative Officer Lynne Burch said that staff could certainly request it on behalf of council.

“In reading the email there, it mentioned that they’re not going to be using dynamite. They would instead use a product called asemite, which is some kind of expanding gel that they put into drill holes,” Coun. Gary Smith explained.

“I would be curious if there’s some sort of information on what the impact of that might be in case of a spill or what’s its environmental impact?”

Krog asked staff if they could follow up on finding out what asemite was, as Smith and he tried reading up on the product but found it hard to find any information.

“Coun. Smith and I were trying to do research on it and the closest we could come was Crackamite, which is probably a brand name,” Krog said. Crackamite was to fill in the holes and “fractures the rock at perfect angles” and was said to be environmentally friendly.

While council received a report from Chief Financial Officer Cecile Arnott and was set to sign a new five-year agreement with Grand Forks Credit Union to provide banking services, the deal will be for a shorter period of time.

“This is a proposal to continue the current banking arrangements with the Grand Forks Credit Union for an additional five years but I’ve just been made aware that there’s been a change and the credit union would like to make that a three-year plan,” Kendel said.

The motion carried.

Council also gave final reading to Bylaw 1931, a revenue anticipation bylaw and Bylaw 1930, an electrical utility regulatory amendment bylaw. For full story on the the electrical bylaw, go here.



Karl Yu

About the Author: Karl Yu

After interning at Vancouver Metro free daily newspaper, I joined Black Press in 2010.
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