Mining Corporation Looks to BC for Frac Sand Open Pit Mine by Carol Linnitt, November 29, 2012, desmog.blog
Stikine Gold Mining Corp. will provide unconventional gas producers with British Columbian silica sand for fracking operations if the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations approves the company’s open pit frac sand mine project application. According to the Ministry’s website the project, located 90 kilometers north of Prince George, is in pre-application status with the Environmental Assessment Office.
If granted approval, Stikine could gouge a 5 kilometer wide and 200 meter deep hole in the region’s sandstone shelves, dismantling what works as a massive natural water filtration system in order to benefit an industrial enterprise that removes millions of gallons of freshwater from the earth’s hydrogeological system each year. This is done as an intermediary step towards fracking for unconventional gas, an energy-intensive, heavy industrial process that will ultimately release high levels of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere.