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The New Gold Rush
by Jim Easterday

Northern BC has seen gold rushes in the past and may see another in 2006 due to the increase in world mineral ore prices.

In May of 2005, gold prices were about $400- US per ounce. Today (May, 2006) gold is close to $650- per ounce.

Silver prices were just over $5- US per ounce a year ago. Today the price is near $13-.

If the prices hold, expect great interest in mining exploration in north-central BC this summer. It has always been that way.

The Monk family at the Telkwa Coal mine, date unknown
Click to zoom

Photos courtesy of the staff at the Bulkley Valley Museum, Smithers, BC

We have a rich history of mining dating back to the first gold and copper discovery on the Telkwa river in 1899. Whenever mineral ore prices were high, prospectors and promoters roamed the backcountry and mines were developed. When mineral prices dipped in the "good old days", prospectors moved to places like Ontario, Australia or Peru and the mines closed or were abandoned. Stagnant world mineral ore prices for the last ten years has caused a slump in the mining exploration industry, but now we are in for another "gold rush".

There were surges in local mining activity in 1910 to 1930. Nineteen local small and medium-size mines were shipping ore. During the Korean war in the early 1950s, another boom in mineral prices re-opened mines west of Hazelton. In the Canada Mining report of 1952, there were 77 mineral properties in the Smithers/Hazelton area, many active.

Bunkhouses under construction at the Duthie Mine west of Smithers in 1929
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If you tour the backroads, you will often see old buildings, machinery and tailings piles. Up until the 1980s, small mines could be economical for the owners but were hard on the environment. Acid rock drainage leached downstream from tailing piles and mine adits, killed fish and polluted creeks and rivers. Mine sites were left littered with abandoned machinery. Adits and shafts were left open and dangerous for the public.

Today, new mines must treat acid rock drainage before it pollutes. When a mine closes, the site is cleaned up, filled, landscaped and planted.

All the planning and treating of pollutants and waste is so expensive that small mines are no longer viable.

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