The Winnipeg Free Press reports this weekend on the Bucko Lake nickel mine near Wabowden, Manitoba, owned by the Toronto-based mining company Crowflight Minerals.
The newspaper reports that the company’s largest shareholder is King Place Enterprises Ltd., a Chinese investment fund.
“Crowflight built Bucko Lake in 2007” and “the mine opened in early 2009. …The company shut down production in November after admitting it had take the wrong technical approach to the ore body” and “got back into production earlier this year.” Production has just been shut down again meaning “the temporary loss of jobs for 150 workers.” The company plans to have the mine back in production in early 2011.
They “have a mining plan that can stretch for 10 years” and “believe there are mineral resources that can keep it going for another 10 years.”
Though not mentioned in the news report, Crowflight has applied to reclassify Bucko Lake a tailings impoundment area under the Schedule 2 exemption in the Fisheries Act that allows freshwater lakes to be used as garbage dumps by mining companies.
