In a Feb. 13, 2013 press release, Pacific Booker Minerals Inc. (PBM) announced that it had retained the Vancouver law firm of Hunter Litigation Chambers Law Corporation, “to advance litigation against the Province of British Columbia in connection with the refusal of the government to issue an Environmental Assessment Certificate (EAC) for the Morrison Copper/Gold Mine Project.”
The proposed mine was to have been located north of Granisle B.C. The mine project would have begun in 2014 to extract an estimated $6 billion in mineral resources.
The 10 year feasibility and environmental assessment process has cost PBM more than $30 million in studies and environmental analysis. More than 16,000 pages of documentation have been produced, resulting in a 200 page provincial environmental assessment. PBM had agreed to meet 32 conditions set out by the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) for approval of the project.
A last minute denial of the anticipated environmental approval on Oct. 1, 2012 took PBM and the mining industry by surprise. Despite a positive assessment by the EAO that the project had ‘adequately and reasonably’ dealt with all environmental, First Nations, and public concerns, environment minister Terry Clark’s office denied the application.
The denial was followed by a more than 50 per cent drop in stock value amounting to $140 million in equity losses for over 1100 investors.
Since then, PBM has periodically made press releases reiterating its contention that it had met all of the requirements set out in the EAC process, and that the province had moved the goal posts, unfairly hurting PBM’s interests.
Pacific Booker Mineral’s announcement did not include any details of what the litigation might look like or when it might be introduced.
Estimated provincial revenues from the project were in excess of one billion dollars over the lifespan of the proposed mine.