So you want to build a mine. You’ve done exploratory drilling, released a resource estimate, and you are prepared to move ahead at this site. The next critical phase will last several years. It will go a long way in determining whether your project, economics aside, is allowed to proceed. And it probably will cost a few million dollars. It is time to think about the environmental assessment (EA).

Beginning with the preparation of an environmental impact statement and concluding with the granting of approval, the EA is a company’s best attempt at predicting and planning for the effects its project will have on water, air, soil, plant life, wildlife, and human inhabitants, for the next ten, hundred, or thousand years to come. From its beginnings in the 1970s, the Canadian process has become more voluminous, more expensive, and more extensive in scope.

Depuis l’énoncé des incidences environnementales jusqu’à l’obtention du feu vert, l’évaluation environnementale (EE) permet à une entreprise de montrer sa volonté de prévoir les effets de son projet sur la qualité de l’eau, de l’air et de sol, sur la faune et la flore, et sur les habitants humains, pour les dix, cent ou mille prochaines années. Or, le système canadien d’EE, créé dans les années 1 ... Lisez plus.