Spanish Mountain Golds proposal

I am a resident on Quesnel lake and I’m extremely concerned about Spanish Mountain Golds proposal to build a gold mine in our area.

Spanish mountain gold will have a negative impact on our environment, health and economy.

The location of the mine will destroy the pristine environment of our rare interior rainforest. The loss of land by logging, building roads and extracting land in the mine process will negatively affect our rich biodiversity, pure water sources and destroy habitat and the migration of endangered species.

It is extremely important that we protect our health from the toxic chemicals that they plan to use for extracting the gold.

Cyanide, mercury and sulfuric acid will be released into our atmosphere, water sources and soil‘s. It will contaminate the air that we breathe, the water that we drink and our diverse ecosystem.

The negative impacts will affect hundreds if not thousands of people that live, play and work in this area. Tourism, guiding, hunting and fishing provide hundreds of jobs yearly in this pristine wilderness.

Spanish mountain gold will only employ 50 people for its 14 year lifetime.

To allow another mine to be built in our area would be a injustice. It will be a continual threat to our communities as we struggle to regain what we have already lost from the collapse tailings dam spill from Polley Mountain in 2014.

The spill was the worst environmental disaster in British Columbia‘s history. It sent 25,000 cubic meters of cyanide laden waste into nearby rivers and Quesnel lake. It poisoned water , killed fish , destroyed land , forest and affected tourism.

Our communities and resources are more valuable than gold . It is imperative that we reject Spanish mountain golds Proposal so that we can protect our health, environment, communities and resources for generations.

Thank you ,
Alyssa and Tyler Ilnicki