Terry Lamphier: Mine our green, not our gold
This "alternative use" proposal would use the existing mine tunnels as an emergency water source and reflects on the complex geology that...
hurts business & Homeowners
While Rise Gold shareholders profit, the local community gets little. The few jobs gained are offset by big risks for tourism, high tech businesses, wells, and 10’s of millions lost in property values.
$10's of millions
consider the impact
Gold brings the lure of possible riches, but who gets rich, and at what cost to the community?
If opened, the Mine will bring in some jobs, short-term construction, and a bit of local spending and property taxes, but if the huge costs of creating the processing facility and refurbishing the flooded mine can be eventually paid for by gold production, the profits will go out to investors, not the community.
Offsetting that is a long list of potential downsides which won't be studied in the Environment Impact Report. People in our community are deeply concerned that the County Supervisors, who will ultimately make the decision about this project, are at risk of doing so without having all the facts in hand.
TALKING POINTS
Here are just a few of the things we're worried about.
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Real estate professionals and appraisers tell us that property values will drop in the surrounding community by 5 - 20%, resulting in 10's of thousands of dollars lost in home equity for each home and adding up to 10's of millions of dollars lost across the total number of homes impacted.
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If wells get contaminated or fail, will Rise Gold's insurance bonds cover the full costs of supplying immediate water, hooking homes up to NID water, and paying the ongoing costs? Most well owners pay little to nothing for water today.
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How will the increase in traffic or vibration from underground blasting affect local businesses?
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How will our tourism industry change if we we add more spare-the-air days, an unsightly processing plant, and have two massive “engineered fill” grading and compacting operations running continuously on the edge of town?
A huge thank you goes to everyone who asked the County to produce an independent economic impact report. The report is in the works and is expected to be released in the spring of 2022.
