A local environmental organization is looking for an emergency order that would put the brakes on a proposed open-pit magnesium mine near Rossland.
Wildsight says it will seek the order for the endangered mountain holly fern after BC’s environmental assessment office decided the Record Ridge project doesn’t need to be subjected to a full-blown review.
Disturbance of the fern was listed as a key environmental concern in the assessment office’s evaluation of the project. Their report said they had received advice from Environment Canada that current mapping of the fern was needed to inform its decision, and that surveys in 2024 confirmed the mine would affect the fern.
“After reaching the conclusion that Record Ridge would pose a direct threat to the mountain holly fern, the report proceeds to completely ignore the matter, neither exploring how the fern could be protected, nor referencing it in its conclusion,” said Simon Wiebe, a mining policy and impacts researcher for Wildsight.
Wiebe said his organization petitioned Environment Canada in 2023 for an emergency order under the Species at Risk Act, but was told that because the project was still being studied by the environmental assessment office, the fern was technically not yet at risk.
“Now that they’ve decided the assessment isn’t going to happen, it seems logical that the fern is now at risk,” he said.
Wiebe said the fern is a threatened species, only found in a handful of places in Canada. Where it does exist, there isn’t much of it, making it especially vulnerable. It likes magnesium-rich soils, which is why it thrives on Record Ridge.
Wiebe said if Environment Canada acts on their request, the federal government could step in and do further analysis, pausing the permitting process. That would open a study period that would delay the mine until federal agencies can establish what can be done to reduce the risk to the fern.
“There is a chance this could be effective in protecting this threatened species,” Wiebe said. “We’re trying to take every opportunity we can to help this species thrive.”
WHY Resources originally applied for an operation with a capacity of 200,000 tonnes of ore per year, but in 2024, the company amended its application to a capacity of 63,500 tonnes annually. The revised amount was below the threshold that would trigger an automatic environmental assessment.
However, the Save Record Ridge Action Committee Society and the Sinixt Confederacy both formally requested an assessment anyway. The society has since indicated that it will take legal action to try to force an assessment to take place.
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