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

Gold Canyon Resources Inc.
Springpole Gold Access Corridor Project
Final Environmental Study Report
Minimizing potential impacts to archaeological values by selecting a route with a lower
potential to host archaeological values.
The Springpole Gold Project represents a significant economic opportunity that, if developed, would
create well-paying, long-term employment opportunities in the region, positively contributing to the
local economy, community and government tax base.
Letters of support for the Springpole Gold Project are being received from the Township of Ear Falls
and the Municipality of Red Lake, which are the two (2) proximal municipalities to the Project.
5.0 PROJECT DESCRIPTION
The Project essentially consists of road-building and timber clearing. In order to avoid “re-inventing
the wheel,” GCU intends to adopt the AOC prescriptions and other requirements in the FMP in order
to follow precedents for these activities within the Trout Lake SFL.
GCU has undertaken a large scale 2011-2012 program to define the biological and archaeological
values at the Property with direct participation from First Nations technicians. These on-going efforts
are intended to inform GCU of the values in the region so they can be protected during the course of
on-going exploration activities and future potential development activities.
The values mapping and on-going outreach program have resulted in the adoption of a variety of
mitigation measures, which are well-established due to the common nature of this Project. In the
interest of simplicity, ease of implementation and enforceability by MNR, these mitigation measures
have been directly integrated into the methodology for the Project where practical, as described in
Section 5. However, specific mitigation measures are summarized in Section 6 and GCU also
remains open to entering into a reasonable Resource Stewardship Agreement that is in line with
precedent agreements, as indicated in Table 3-2.
Despite the extensive archaeological assessment work completed to date and the clearance of the
Project corridor by Horizon (refer to Section 4.1), GCU will follow the Chance Find Procedure
defined herein (refer to Definition of Terms and Acronyms) and this may necessitate minor
modifications to the road alignment within the 500m wide corridor presented on Figure 2-1. If GCU
modifies the location of the ~15 m wide road right of way (“ROW”) within the 500 m corridor
presented on Figure 2-1, these minor modifications will be documented to MNR and will be reflected
in the permit applications that follow the EA process. Prior to construction, any potential minor
modifications to the ~15 m wide road ROW within the 500 m corridor will be cleared of
archaeological values by a licensed professional archaeologist, in accordance with prescriptive
standards and guidelines for consultant archaeologists from the Ministry of Tourism and Culture,
with documentation provided to MNR.
The Project is a subset of the Springpole Gold Project, as defined herein. In the event that the
Project is approved and executed, the seasonal ice road over Birch Lake (refer to Figure 2-1) would
be discontinued.
The Project proposal is independent of the activities that are approved in the Trout Lake FMP and
there are no collaborations with the SFL holder regarding road construction.
Although the on-going exploration activity is outside the scope of this EA process, the current
planned area of intensified mineral exploration is shown on Figure 2-1.
July 2013 Page 43