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

Gold Canyon Resources Inc.
Springpole Gold Access Corridor Project
Final Environmental Study Report
measures. Rather than excluding any issues from public disclosure that are outside the scope of this
EA process, all identified issues are listed in Table 3-2 herein along with GCU’s impact mitigation
measures. GCU shall continue to comply with regulatory requirements and best practices for the ongoing
exploration and resource definition activities at the Springpole Gold Project that are outside
the scope of this EA process.
This final ESR describes a proposed project that has been refined from the Base Case Project
Description of July 2012, the draft ESR of October 2012 and the Final ESR of February 2013. As is
evident upon review of these documents, GCU notes that the proposed Project in this Report has
been fundamentally altered and its duration shortened in an effort to mitigate potential impacts to
values and interests in the region.
This Report is intended to be read in its entirety and is not intended to have excerpts read, quoted or
interpreted out of context.
The FMP Approved Road (refer to Definition of Terms and Acronyms) is shown on Figure 2-1 and is
approved for construction by the SFL holder as part of the current FMP, regardless of GCU’s
actions. For the purpose of comparing the effects of the western and the eastern corridors, it is
assumed that the FMP Approved Road is in place. In other words, the comparative effects analysis
is effectively a comparison of the entire western corridor with the eastern corridor road that is
situated beyond the FMP Approved Road (refer to Figure 2-1).
2.0 ASSESSMENT OF ALTERNATIVES
An alternatives assessment has led to the formulation of the proposed Project, as presented in this
Report. As indicated in Section 1.3, the objective of the Project is to provide safe, reliable, yearround,
land-based access to the area of the Deposit to support the intensified exploration and
definition work that is required to support an economic evaluation.
2.1 Assessment of Alternative Methods
The alternative methods for establishing reliable year-round (land-based) access to the vicinity of
the Deposit are listed in the bullets below.
Option 1: Continued fly-in access (helicopter and float plane) with seasonal ice road access
in February over Birch Lake (weather dependent). This Option is equivalent to the “donothing”
alternative and assumes that access to the Project continues “as-is.”
Option 2: Construct the planned Wenasaga road (as approved in 2014-2019 FMP) and
establish seasonal barge access to the Springpole Gold Project site via Springpole Lake
during open water period and seasonal ice road access during the winter freeze-up period
(weather permitting).
Option 3: Establish a land-based access corridor that connects with the existing road
network of the Trout Lake Forest.
The Springpole Gold Project is a very prospective resource definition project. The proposed
Project is a necessary subset of the Springpole Gold Project. A “no-go” option was not
included in this assessment given the alignment of the Project with the province’s objectives
of supporting mineral exploration and encouraging the development of new mines (refer to
Section 1.1).
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