Water not coal
@CorbLund:
Coal mines destroy the landscape, and release toxic chemicals into the air and water, which threatens fish, birds, wildlife, livestock and the water we drink.
Hey Alberta. Expect approval soon on our petition to stop coal mining in our Rockies, source of our drinking water. We’re gonna need TONS of canvassers.
Go to http://CoalPetition.ca give us your email and tell 50 friends.
When approved we’ll give you info on how to help. Pls RT.
@ruggedbroad.bsky.social:
They keep talking about this miraculous water treatment and effluent storage but they use BC Teck mine’s data as the science to prove it, which actually proves that it doesn’t work.
This is all infuriating.
@nigelb.bsky.social:
Northback was (if you can believe it) still contesting in Federal Court the federal rejection of the project following the JRP Report in 2021. That is now formally at an end.
But as Northback’s letter describes, it is planning a revised project and refiling.
@jennaa2014.bsky.social:
But if it’s revised how can it be an advanced project?!
UCP’s Brian Jean is a full sewage lagoon, he’ll lie and enable and serve whatever Gina demands, as will AER with Premier Danielle Smith’s shitty corrupt bestie on shit-filled board. Homo naziens have polluted every inch of earth, and are fast wiping out other species. We are soon to be next, punted off the planet because of our evil stupid ways, led astray by religion.
@sidewalkbobyyc.bsky.social:
This is the proposed mine Corb Lund was leading the opposition to, right?
@scribblersemporium.bsky.social:
And continues to lead the opposition to, because the coal company and the UCP are still trying
@sidewalkbobyyc.bsky.social:
The whole UCP/Coal Mining alliance is truly sleazy.
Can’t wait for the Alberta NDP to shut this dien when they win the next provincial election.You gotta be fucking kidding me! NDP were/are all in on the destruction of Grassy Mountain by Benga/Northback for billionaire Gina to get richer from. They are also all in on frac’ing, tarsands, another bitumen pipeline (read Nenshi’s fucking approval of Carney & Smith’s deregulatory Quisling MOU), devastation/toxic pollution you name it, the NDP are in. If it’s industry, the NDP will do everything in their power to make it happen. I bet Nenshi’s coaching Northback along with Carney about how to get their way and pollute and destroy as they like. NDP are a con party, just like UCP but not as religiously evil.
If only Alberta had a minister of the Environment.
Healthcare & education are underfunded while Danielle Smith cuts $M cheques to dirty polluters.
@ydbelanger.bsky.social:
I await the Friday afternoon screed from the premier‘s office, decrying federal intervention in provincial matters. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Grassy Mountain Coal Project, Notice of Termination by Gov’t of Canada, Dec 19, 2025
Ottawa — December 19, 2025 — The Minister of the Environment, Climate Change, and Nature (the Minister) terminated the environmental assessment for the Grassy Mountain Coal Project (the project) pursuant to section 62 of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012. On December 8, 2025, Benga Mining Limited, now Northback Holdings Corporation, notified the Minister that they no longer intend to carry out the project as proposed.
Document reference number: 5107
Date modified: 2025-12-19
***
northback.ca
Calgary Corporate Office
1910, 525 8th Ave SW Calgary, AB T2P 1G1
403-753-5160
Crowsnest Pass Office
12955 20th Ave Blairmore, AB T0K 0E0
403-753-5160
December 8, 2025
By email: (email hidden; JavaScript is required)
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada, K1A 0A6
Attention: The Honourable Julie Dabrusin, Minister of Environment and Climate
Change
Dear Minister Dabrusin
RE: Benga Mining Limited (“Benga”)
Grassy Mountain Coal Project (“Project”)
CEAA Reference No. 80101
Request to Terminate the Impact Assessment of the Project
Benga, now Northback,1 hereby advises that it will not be carrying out the Project as it was
proposed to the Canadian Environmental Impact Assessment Agency on November 10, 2015.
Therefore, Northback requests the termination of the federal impact assessment of the Project
pursuant to section 62 of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012 (“CEAA 2012”).
This authority to terminate an impact assessment is also granted to the Minister pursuant to
section 73 of the Impact Assessment Act (“IAA”). However, the federal assessment of the Project began under CEAA 2012. The IAA came into force in August 2019 and, pursuant to subsection 183(1) of the IAA, the impact assessment of the Project continued following the requirements of CEAA 2012 as if CEAA 2012 had not been repealed. In any event, both the CEAA 2012 and the IAA provide the Minister with the authority to terminate the assessment of the Project because the Project will not be carried out.
BACKGROUND
Northback was the proponent of the Project, a proposed open-pit steelmaking coal mine in the
Crowsnest Pass area of southwestern Alberta. To proceed, the Project required both federal and provincial assessments and approvals. Federally, the Project required an environmental
assessment under CEAA 2012 and the resulting preparation of a report for the Minister of
Environment and Climate Change (“Minister”). The Minister was then required to decide under subsection 52(1) of CEAA 2012, after taking into account any mitigation measures the Minister considered appropriate, whether the Project was likely to cause significant adverse
environmental effects. If so, the Minister was required under s. 52(2) of CEAA 2012 to refer the
matter of whether those effects are justified in the circumstances to the Governor in Council for a decision under subsection 52(4) of CEAA 2012.
The Project underwent an environmental assessment by a joint federal-provincial review panel
(“JRP”) tasked with discharging both federal and provincial environmental assessment
responsibilities for the Project and preparing a report.2 The JRP published a report on June 17, 2021.
In its capacity as the provincial regulator, the JRP found that the Project was not in the public interest and denied the provincial applications for the Project.
On August 6, 2021, the Minister issued a Decision Statement, agreeing with the JRP’s report and advising that the Project would have significant adverse environmental effects. The Minister also advised that the Project had been referred to the Governor in Council, as required by subsection 52(2) of the CEAA 2012, and that the Governor in Council had decided that the significant adverse environmental effects were not justified in the circumstances.
In Federal Court File No. T-1270-21, Northback sought judicial review of the Decisions
communicated in the Minister’s Decision Statement on August 6, 2021. …
CURRENT STATUS
2 The Impact Assessment Act, SC 2019, c 28, s. 1, came into force in August 2019 and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency became the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada. However, given the environmental assessment began under CEAA 2012, the assessment continued following the requirements of CEAA 2012 , as per subsection 183(1) of the IAA.
As a result of the Federal Court’s decision to set aside the Minister’s and Governor in Council’s
decisions to deny the Project, the federal assessment of the Project remains ongoing. The Court-ordered consultation with the First Nations has not been undertaken by the Government of Canada.
PROJECT WILL NO LONGER BE CARRIED OUT
Northback will not be proceeding with the Project that was reviewed by the JRP and is currently subject to the ongoing federal assessment under CEAA 2012.
Northback has publicly announced that it no longer intends on developing the Project as previously contemplated and will instead be pursuing a significantly revised mine project that:4
- will shrink the mine’s footprint by around 40% compared to what was previously
proposed; - will reduce the output of steelmaking coal to 2.5 million tonnes each year, from the 4.5
million tonnes previously proposed; and - will incorporate a new, multi-tier water management strategy to avoid potential selenium
contamination and reduce water consumption.
In the JRP report, the most significant adverse environmental effect of the Project falling within federal jurisdiction was to westslope cutthroat trout (“WSCT”) and their habitat in the Gold Creek watershed. WSCT are listed as threatened under the Species at Risk Act (“SARA”) and in May 2019, the Government of Canada published an updated Recovery Strategy and Action Plan for the Alberta Populations of Westslope Cutthroat Trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii lewisi) in Canada 2019 (the “2019 Recovery Strategy”). The Project that was reviewed by the JRP would have resulted in impacts to 758 m2 of aquatic critical habitat in Gold Creek and 18,868 m2 of riparian critical habitat in the Gold Creek watershed.5 Northback has determinedthis vile company is not to be trusted, in any way. They lie and bribe and lie and bribe that because it will be relocating major infrastructure outside of the Gold Creek watershed, Northback anticipates it will no longer require a Fisheries Act I bet you their “revised” Grassy Mountain project will still cause significant selenium pollution and harms to waterways and fish. Do these invasive Northback fuckers plan to con the feds? UCP of course are so fucking corrupt, they’ll let the company harm and kill and pollute and destroy however they demand and do. Mind you, Carney is partner with UCP, he’s even more corrupt than Harper and UCP combined, so I bet he’ll let Northback destroy and polluter as much as they likeauthorization or SARA permit associated with WSCT and the Gold Creek watershed. Accordingly, as it pertains to matters within federal jurisdiction, the Project as previously proposed will no longer be carried out and the federal assessment should be terminated.
4 Emma Graney, “Northback to submit new proposal to develop Alberta’s Grassy Mountain coal mine”, The Globe and Mail (23 September
2025), online: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-northback-grassy-mountain-project-crowsnest-coal-mine-alberta/.
5 JRP Report, 2021 ABAER 010 (June 17, 2021) at para. 1206.
On October 9, 2025, Northback filed a revised project summary with theSuper corrupt corporate crime and pollution and devastation enabling provincial regulator, and the provincial regulator has confirmed that a provincial environmental impact assessment
will be required for the revised Project. The revised Project will be located on substantially the same lands as the Project that was reviewed by the JRP, although within a smaller footprint. This smaller footprint results in significantly less effects within areas of federal jurisdiction because Northback no longer requires the federal Fisheries Act authorization or SARA permit associated with WSCT and the Gold Creek watershed. Northback is assessing what federal authorizations, if any, may be required for the revised Project but confirms that the authorizations initially sought for the Project in connection with activities near Gold Creek are no longer required.NOT TO BE TRUSTED! I bet Northback, or whatever next name Gina finagles us with, will pollute and harm as much as with their original plans, they’ll just do so secretly so as to not have to get federal approvals and I bet Carney has privately promised them that no authorities will be look at them. FUCKERS, the company and their fucking Canadian quisling lawyers at Rape & Pillage Bennet Fucking Jones
CONCLUSION
Following the Federal Court’s decision, the Minister’s and Governor in Council’s decisions no
longer stand, and the federal assessment of the Project remains ongoing. Section 62 of CEAA
2012 and section 73 of the IAA grant the Minister the authority to terminate the impact
assessment of a designated project referred to a review panel if the proponent advises the
Minister in writing that the designated project will not be carried out. As set out above,
Northback does not intend to carry out the Project that was reviewed by the JRP, and no longer requires the federal Fisheries Act authorization or SARA permit associated with WSCT and the Gold Creek watershed. Therefore, we request that the Minister terminate the federal impact assessment of the Project.This reeks. I bet the company will still spew selenium thick and toxic, and kill fish, sicken many Canadians and pollute drinking water for millions.
Should you have any questions, please contact the undersigned.
Yours truly,
NORTHBACK HOLDINGS CORPORATION
Bradley Johnston, Chief Operating Officer
cc: Caireen Hanert, Gowling WLG, counsel for Piikani Nation
Brooke Barrett, Rae and Company, counsel for Stoney Nakoda Nations
Sean Carriere, Impact Assessment Agency
Martin Ignasiak, KC, Bennett Jones LLP
Northback to submit new proposal to develop Alberta’s Grassy Mountain coal mine by Emma Graney I do not trust her reporting, or the Globe and Mail, September 24, 2025
Creepy untrustworthy douche fuckersNorthback CEO Mike Young, left, and Hancock Prospecting CEO Projects Sanjiv Manchanda at the Northback headquarters in Calgary on Tuesday.Gavin John/The Globe and MailThe proponent of a controversial southern Alberta coal mine, which was rejected by a federal-provincial panel four years ago, is trying again.
Northback Holdings Corp., a subsidiary of Australian mining giant Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd., is submitting a revised proposal for the Grassy Mountain mine to the Alberta Energy Regulator. Northback chief executive officer Mike Young told The Globe and Mail on Tuesday that the new plan aims to address in my view, con the feds and AER, likely coached by Carney and AER, to con the public and to be harmed residentsby lying about and cover-ing up a ream of issues that led to the panel’s rejection of the original plan.
Alberta regulator approves controversial coal exploration applications at Grassy Mountain
Alberta settles with two companies in $16-billion coal case
The plan includes a new, multitier water management strategy to try and avoid potential selenium contamination,impossible to do reduced water consumption and putting waste material back into the mine pit rather than Gold Creek – a huge point of contention in the original plan.
It also shrinks the mine’s footprint by around 40 per cent and reduces the likely output of steel-making coal to 2.5 million tonnes each year, from 4.5 million tonnes.so what? the harms will be the same. Soon as the project is started, the fucking company will apply for expansion, and claim the impacts are already there, and they will “improve” the site eventually, and our regulators will fall all over themselves, giving Gina whatever the fuck she demands.
“A lot of companies, after the original decision, may have just walked away,” Mr. Young said. “From the day of that decision, the company turned their mind to, ‘Well, what would it take to actually get this approved?’”Hanky Panky, like this “new” plan.
Grassy Mountain, in the Crowsnest Pass, was for decades dug out and tunnelled to get to steel-making coal before it was abandoned in the 1960s, and remnants of the region’s coal industry still litter the mountain.but, they do not contaminate the way Northback’s greed and stupidity plans to
For the past few years, it has been a battleground, pitting neighbours and communities against each otherya, the usual corporate rapists intentionally dividing to conquer, thanks to the fucking company bribing some, and asking only a tiny few for their views, a tiny few that will be not adversely impacted. On one side are those concerned about the environmental effects of a mine and its significant water consumptionAND MUCH MORE SO, THE SELENIUM CONTAMINATION WHICH NO COMPANY HAS EVER BEEN ABLE TO PREVENT OR CLEAN UP, and which is deadly to fish and harms human health in a parched corner of Alberta. On the other are folks who espouse who were bribed and lied to and tricked to support the development’s economic and employment potential.
Voices against the project include local ranchers, Alberta country music star Corb Lund and the Municipality of Ranchland, where the mine would be located.
But there are plenty of supporters, toothat do no live where the harms will occur. Access to the project site is off Highway 3 in the municipality of Crownest Pass. In a 2024 non-binding referendum in that community, close to 72 per cent of voters supported the mine.
In May, after days of hearings filled with passionate supporters and critics of the Grassy Mountain mine, the regulator approved applications for coal exploration, drilling and water diversion. Mr. Young said that work will begin soon, and the results will inform the revised plan.
The company isn’t kidding itself on the likelihood of opposition. Hancock’ssee below for nasty shocking disgusting story on this fithy destructive lying companyCEO of Projects, Sanjiv Manchanda, said it would be “naive to expect” there will be no pushback.
“All we can do is be confident aboutour lies, hanky panky, bribery, trickery, and how we con regulators and govt’s to let us do what we want, which is destroy and pollute as much as possible to maximize profit while walking from clean upwhat we do,” he said.
Alberta announced a host of proposed new rules in December governing coal mining, but they won’t apply to what the province deems “advanced” projects, such as Grassy Mountain.
The government also wants tobut won’t (they do not serve Alberta or Albertans, they serve Nazi USA and billionaires like Gina)significantly boost royalty rates that companies pay the province as part of the coal policy modernization process. The current royalty rate for coal mined in the mountains or foothills is just 1 per cent. Once the project reaches payout, it rises to 1 per cent of mine mouth revenue – the revenue at the point of extraction minus costs – plus 13 per cent of net revenue. (Similar to Alberta’s oil sands, a coal mine reaches payout once its cumulative revenues equal or exceed its cumulative eligible costs.)
Mr. Manchanda said Tuesday that royalties comprise only a small part of the potential economic benefits of Grassy Mountain; the company will also pay taxes, employees, staff and contractors if the project goes ahead.Pfff. I don’t believe him. Look at the many profit rapists in Alberta intentionally walking from clean-up, and refusing to pay taxes and refusing to pay rent to landowners, with blessing and smirks from the fucking UCP and AER, while causing significant pollution, health harms to workers and communities, and destruction to public infrastructure (roads, bridges, etc).
“We don’t even have a project built, and we’ve spent between $155- and $170-million on local contractors, vendors, staff, payroll and everything else.”
The proposal comes in the shadow of various forecasts that paint a gloomy picture for metallurgical coal prices.
S&P Global said in a recent analysis that low steel demand, exacerbated by recent uncertainty around global trade policy, has weighed heavily on the companies that dig up the commodity. As a result, the U.S. East Coast benchmark price was US$172 per million tonnes on May 14, down 42.7 per cent from the two-year high of US$300 per million tonnes in October, 2023.
To that, Mr. Manchanda said that Hancock’s philosophy is to control what it can, and not stress about the restas it abuses land, water, air, health, communities, families, wildlife, fish, beauty, other vital industries, and shits on and destroys the truth.
“We don’t control foreign exchange. We don’t control iron ore price. We control unit cost. We control impact on environment. We focus on destroying it as fast as we can because we are a soulless callous company, with an even more soulless callous owner.that. Weneverdo the right thing. Everything else looks after itself,” he said.
Mr. Young added that projected demand for metallurgical coal is forecast to outstrip supply, likely leading to a market crunch in the 2030s – particularly because so few coal mines are being developed.
“A lot of it’s got to do with politics – I won’t beat around the bush on that – but we do have a constant stream of Asian steel mills coming to visit us and traders coming to visit us to say, ‘When are you going to get into production? Because we want your product,’” he said.
Even if demand does fall, the quality of Grassy Mountain coal means it would be one of the last to leave the market; comparing it with beef, Mr. Young said, “It’s not Wagyu, but it’s triple A.”Experts not related to the fucking company have stated the coal is shit quality, and nearly impossible to get at, without massive destruction and pollution, and horrendous cost. Whenever companies are faced with cost, they lie, cheat, steal, and cut corners.
Refer also to: