Prairie Creek Mine Road
Canadian Zinc Corporation wants to upgrade and rebuild an old winter road into the Prairie Creek mine site which, since it was last used more than two decades ago, has slowly begun reverting back to its wild state.Dr. Derek Ford, a world expert on limestone caves and other karst formations, has expressed serious concern that the road could damage globally unique, delicate limestone caves and other "karst" formations found in the Nahanni, and lead to groundwater contamination from spills.
The company applied for a permit to re-construct this road in May 2003. When the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board referred the company's application to reconstruct the old winter road to an environmental assessment, Canadian Zinc appealed the ruling to the NWT Supreme Court. On May 6, 2005, the Court ruled that the company could seek permission to re-build a long closed winter road to the Prairie Creek mine site without undergoing an environmental assessment. This means that bulldozers could soon be in the delicate Nahanni karstlands, carving a road through the wilderness, without the project even having been subject to environmental assessment.
While the regulators and Courts considered the proposal to rebuild a winter road, the Canadian Zinc website clearly stated that the company wants to build an all-season road to the mine. Yet, this second stage of the project was not considered in the regulatory or legal processes, once more illustrating the piecemeal approach being used to advance this project forward, while avoiding scrutiny of the overall impacts of the mine on the Nahanni.
