The Myra Falls zinc and copper mine near Campbell River is on the cusp of restarting, now that a tentative labour agreement has been reached between the union and company.
This is “obviously great news,” Campbell River Mayor Andy Adams said Thursday.
Mine owner Nyrstar, of Switzerland, staged an open house last week to inform Campbell River of its plans to open again, Adams said.
About 70 workers are on site now, he said. “They are doing environmental clean up and some repair work, and getting things in shape.”
The underground mine used to have up to 350 workers, with about 280 of those unionized members of Unifor Local 3019.
When their jobs disappeared, many workers remained in Campbell River, commuting to jobs elsewhere, Adams said. They went to places such as Alberta’s oilsands, diamond mines in the Northwest Territories and mines in the Dominican Republic and Peru. Others found work on nearby infrastructure projects.
Now that Myra Falls is expecting to reopen, “there’s a lot of excitement about being able to stay at home and work at home,” Adams said.
When Nyrstar bought the mine in 2011, it inherited out-of-date infrastructure, such as its hydro-electric system. The company has contacted the Campbell River environmental committee to keep it apprised of the upgrades underway and improvements to its tailing ponds, Adams said.
“They are being fully open with council, with the city, with community groups as to what their intention is,” he said.
The mine’s closing was a blow to the resource-based community of about 35,000. The Quinsam coal mine wound down in early 2016, and the Elk Falls pulp and paper mill shut down nearly a decade ago, as did the TimberWest sawmill at Elk Falls.
The economy has rebounded with the launch of major infrastructure projects such as the $1 billion John Hart Generating Station replacement project, a new hospital, a city water-supply project, and hundreds of millions of dollars in upcoming seismic improvements at B.C. Hydro dams.
“Campbell River is just booming right now,” Adams said. “Having this mine reopen is just a bonus and provides that added economic diversification.”
Nyrstar has mines in Europe, the Americas and Australia and employs about 4,300 people, the company says on its website.
A Nyrstar spokesperson could not be reached Thursday.
Nothing is definite until the tentative four-year agreement is ratified. It will be presented to members in the coming week, said Bill Garton, president of Local 3019.
Details are not being released yet, he said.
The agreement is being recommended by the union’s negotiating committee, he said. “Like any situation, you have to look at the realities.
Myra Falls is at the base of a steep valley inside Strathcona Provincial Park, about 90 kilometres southwest of Campbell River. Mining has been going on at the site for more than 50 years.
The mine has produced zinc, copper and lead concentrates, and silver and gold.
Nyrstar says on its website that mining and milling ceased in June 2015 and that operations fully ended that October.
A first-quarter statement for this year from Nyrstar said in May that the “conditional restart of Myra Falls [was] approved.”
Company revenue in the first quarter of this year was up over the same months in 2016 due to higher zinc, lead, silver and gold prices, the statement said.
