New report reveals contamination and tailings risks at Red Chris Mine: a cautionary tale for mining in Northwest B.C.
TERRACE, BC, March 26, 2025 /CNW/ - A new investigative report from SkeenaWild reveals contamination from the Red Chris Mine, highlighting concerns for future mining projects in the region and the urgent need for improved mining laws in BC. Northwest British Columbia is home to some of the world's last wild salmon strongholds, but large-scale open-pit mining puts these vital ecosystems at risk.
Operating for nearly a decade, the Red Chris Mine has released higher-than-expected levels of toxins like selenium and copper into surrounding lakes and creeks. The report documents physical destruction of fish habitat and risks associated with tailings dam failure—an event that could devastate critical fish habitat and endanger mine workers and communities downstream.
"With more large-scale mines being proposed, we must ask how we can trust future mines to be any different if existing mining projects fail to protect fish and freshwater?" said Adrienne Berchtold, the report author and SkeenaWild's Aquatic Ecologist and Mining Impacts Researcher.
"After four years of carefully reviewing Red Chris' historic data and reporting, our research shows weak regulations leading to inadequate monitoring and environmental mitigation and ignored expert advice, which contributed to the mine's failings. B.C. needs stronger safeguards to protect people, fish, and water."
Newmont, the company that took over ownership after the time period covered by the report, has begun addressing key problems at the site under the leadership of the Tahltan Nation. While this is encouraging, improved B.C. regulation is required to avoid these problems in the first place at future mines.
Red Chris is seeking approval for an underground mine expansion that could reduce environmental impacts but also shifts the mine's focus to gold–a luxury commodity and not a critical mineral. SkeenaWild warns that B.C.'s plan to fast-track the expansion risks overlooking the mine's existing issues. Without stronger provincial mining regulations, our region's watersheds remain vulnerable to the same issues facing Red Chris.
SkeenaWild urges that public transparency about mining risks and impacts is necessary to move forward, and the B.C. government must act now. "Development and conservation are not opposing forces—stronger regulations and responsible precautionary planning can ensure that economic growth does not come at the expense of wild salmon, clean water, and public safety," Berchtold states.
SkeenaWild calls for stronger environmental protections, better transparency, and improved mining regulations to prevent further loss and harm in our communities and salmon watersheds.
SOURCE SkeenaWild Conservation Trust
Media Contact: Adrienne Berchtold, Ecologist & Mining Impacts Researcher, report author, [email protected], 778-887-0634
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