Revised Final Environmental Study Report (24 MB) - Gold Canyon ...

Gold Canyon Resources Inc.
Springpole Gold Access Corridor Project
Final Environmental Study Report
Improve safety and emergency response capabilities. Unfortunately, injuries and fatalities on
ice roads are commonplace throughout Canada. The GCU team incurred a fatality in 2005
when a piece of heavy equipment fell through the ice road over Birch Lake. As well, air
access cannot always be relied upon due to weather. In the event of a critical injury, reliable
land-based access is required to ensure that the casualty is safely moved as quickly as
possible to ambulance and hospital care as opposed to being weathered in at the camp.
The proposed Project is a subset of the Springpole Gold (resource definition) Project. GCU regards
the Springpole Gold (resource definition) Project, and therefore the proposed Project, as justifiable
for the reasons summarized in the bullets below.
Continued exploration is good for the economy: Contingent on continued successful
exploration results leading to future financing, the on-going, near-term exploration and
resource definition work would result in annual expenditures on the order of millions to tens
of millions of dollars. Based on experience to date, at least two thirds of these expenditures
would accrue to the surrounding region and bolster the local economy. With the demise of
the forestry sector in Ontario over the past 10 years and since the stock market crash of
autumn 2008, promoting economic development in northern Ontario has been the focus of
federal, provincial and municipal government initiatives, policies and legislative reforms.
Springpole Gold Project is aligned with provincial government objectives: Ontario
recognizes the importance of mineral development opportunities to northern Ontario, as
summarized in the bullets below.
In the 2011 publication titled “Forward. Together: The Ontario Liberal Plan for
Northern Ontario,” the current Liberal government has published an objective
of opening at least eight (8) new mines in the next 10 years
(www.ontarioliberal.ca/OurPlan/pdf/ruralnorthern/north_platform_mini.pdf ).
Section 2.3.8(g) of The Growth Plan for Northern Ontario (2011), developed
pursuant to Ontario’s Places to Grow Act, provides for “enabling new mining
opportunities.”
If the Springpole Gold Project proceeds to development and production, a producing
mine is good for the economy: A producing mine would be significant to the local
economy and taxation base. While the actual characteristics of potential future production
will be defined in the PEA, benchmarking of other large tonnage, surface gold mining
projects across the province suggest that the construction phase jobs would be on the order
of >500, the production phase jobs would be on the order of >250 and the capital cost for
the project would be on the order of $500 million. The employment created would likely
represent a >10% increase in the current total primary and manufacturing industry
employment level in the Red Lake / Ear Falls region and, to a lesser extent in more distant
communities including Sioux Lookout, Dryden and Kenora. The provincial and federal
governments would be principal beneficiaries, through new revenues generated through
employee income taxes and other employee-related government-mandated contributions
(e.g. to Canada Pension Plan, Employment Insurance Program, Employee Health Tax and
Workplace Safety and Insurance Board). These senior levels of government would also
enjoy additional revenues through value-added sales, corporate income, capital and other
taxes levied on the corporation. The most proximal municipalities of Ear Falls and Red Lake
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