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

Gold Canyon Resources Inc.
Springpole Gold Access Corridor Project
Final Environmental Study Report
have expressed support for the Project (refer to Table 3-2). These benefits do not include
the charitable donations, infrastructure upgrades and voluntary contributions to the local and
Aboriginal communities that are commonplace with large scale resource development
projects once a revenue stream is achieved, in accordance with the tenets of modern
corporate social responsibility.
Although significant work has been completed to evaluate the known mineralized zones on the
Property, a deposit of this scale and setting typically requires hundreds of thousands of metres of
additional drilling before a comprehensive economic evaluation (i.e. bankable feasibility study) can
be completed, financing can be obtained and a production decision can be made. Given the
currently limited access to the Property, given the >30% reduction in available monies for exploration
work due to the currently high logistics and support costs, the timeline for completing the required
drilling is greater than ~10 years and the ability to finance continued exploration work is at risk.
Improved access will reduce this timeframe for defining the Deposit and completing a
comprehensive economic analysis. The current slow rate of progress and reduced ability to define
significant expansions to the Deposit in a timely manner hinders GCU’s ability to raise the venture
funding that is required to carry out the much-needed exploration work to facilitate a robust
economic evaluation. As well, the cyclical nature of commodity prices may result in materially
depressed gold prices within this ~10 year period, which would deflate the economics of the
Deposit, reduce GCU’s ability to raise the capital to develop a mine and effectively halt the Project
for the foreseeable future.
1.4 Scope of the Report and Notice to Readers
The Project triggered the requirement for a Class EA pursuant to MNR (2003), due to the proposed
disposition of Crown resources. This Report has been prepared to comply with requirements for a
Category C environmental assessment, pursuant to MNR (2003). As is typically the case with
environmental assessments, this Report contains Project details that are based on preliminary
engineering rather than detailed engineering. Further field investigation is planned of the preferred
alternative that emerges from this EA process so that the applications for the permits that are
required to carry out the Project may be refined. The preferred alternative is the eastern corridor
alternative, as presented on Figure 2-1 and described in Section 2.2.3. The eastern corridor
alternative shown on Figure 2-1 is a 500 m wide right-of-way. GCU proposes to construct the ~15 m
wide road corridor within this right-of-way based on refinements that are made to the road during the
approval process that follows the EA process.
As indicated in GCU’s Base Case Project Description Report that was published in July 2012, the
Draft ESR published in October 2012 and the Final ESR published in February 2013, the on-going
exploration activities at the Property are outside the scope of this environmental assessment.
However, GCU notes that it has fundamentally altered its proposed activities in the region to mitigate
potential impacts that have been identified to GCU. Specifically, GCU has abandoned Advanced
Exploration techniques (e.g. surface stripping, bulk sample) in favour of less-invasive preliminary
exploration techniques (e.g. surface diamond drilling). GCU has confirmed with its outside
consultants that further work using preliminary exploration techniques will be sufficient to define the
resource and complete a comprehensive economic evaluation of the Deposit.
GCU tracks issues regarding all its activities related to the Springpole Gold Project to facilitate
efficient management of issues that arise due to GCU’s activities and implementation of mitigation
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