A mining company has been handed a $114,750 penalty for repeatedly sending cobalt-laced waste into a B.C. river at levels as high as 7,000 per cent above legal limits.
On 17 days spanning 2021 to 2023, Barrick Gold Inc. was found to have discharged mine effluent from its Nickel Plate Mine 32 kilometres west of Penticton, B.C., into Hedley Creek, which flows into the Similkameen River. The underground and later open-pit gold mine operated from 1987 to 1996, and has since been in active care and maintenance.
Provincial inspectors found mine effluent contained average cobalt concentrations 1,155 per cent above regulatory limits, at one point, spiking to 7,011 per cent above the mine’s permit limit, according to a recent decision from Jason Bourgeois, director of the Environmental Management Act.
The exceedances reached such a significant magnitude that they “are considered as the most serious type of non-compliances” and “undermine the basic integrity of the overarching regulatory regime,” Bourgeois wrote.
Cobalt is a chemical element found in the Earth’s crust that has been used for thousands of years to create blue pigments in everything from jewelry and paints to glass. Today, the element is a key component in lithium-ion batteries, certain high-strength alloys, livestock feed supplements and fertilizers, and as a radioactive tracer, among other uses.
In small quantities, it is an essential element for human and animal life, but at high concentrations, it becomes toxic, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health. A 2019 screening assessment from Health Canada found exposure risks to the population “are not harmful to human health at current levels of exposure” but that cobalt is being released “at levels that are harmful to the environment.”
In his decision, Bourgeois noted that aquatic invertebrates are the most sensitive to cobalt exposure, followed by fish and plants. High concentrations of the element, he said, could impact animal growth and reproduction.
“Aquatic invertebrates are a food source for salmonids and [are] considered good indicators of chronic long-term contaminant impacts,” wrote the director.
Barrick objected that the permits for releases into Hedley Creek "are not based on the biological effects" to wildlife and "are not suitable for regulating this complexed cobalt."
The company claimed the cobalt released in the mine waste appeared to be less toxic than other forms of "free cobalt." In toxicity tests, Barrick said the highest cobalt concentrations in the stream did not kill rainbow trout. The company submitted that it has spent over $15 million on studies, reports and other work, as well as countless hours of staff time trying to resolve the cobalt exceedances.
Bourgeois said despite those tests, he found "uncertainty” around whether they were carried out at times or locations of highest risk, or whether cyanide that was released will pose a risk to aquatic life.
He concluded that Barrick "likely derived some economic benefit" from failing to comply with the cobalt limit at the mine. But the director said quantifying that benefit would be difficult and "entirely speculative and not defensible" until a full permit amendment process was finished.
"For the purposes of this determination, I find that Barrick has not profited from breaking the law and has not taken its chances on getting caught,” Bourgeois wrote.
Barrick argued the penalty should be reduced within the range of $19,500 to $27,000.
Bourgeois imposed separate penalties for all 17 repeated failures, totalling $114,750 — an amount significantly lower than the $520,000 penalty initially assessed against the company.
The director wrote that a previous penalty to the company "for the exact same circumstances" showed a lower penalty was an inadequate deterrent.
"I find that this amount is necessary to deter Barrick’s future non-compliance with the cobalt limit,” the decision states.
Barrick has 30 days to pay the penalty or appeal the decision.
