Mine near Kamloops fined $222,000 for burying tonnes of waste

A BC mining company was hit with a $222,000 fine for burying an estimated 250 tonnes of waste north of Kamloops.

Provincial mine inspectors visited the Bonaparte Mine site multiple times over the summer, finding an excavator being used to bury scrap material, including a demolished travel trailer, in a flooded pit.

No active mining is being done at the site, but the ministry fined owner Westkam Gold Corporation more than $200,000 for dodging landfill fees and burying more than 200 tonnes of waste, according a Dec. 1 ministry report.

“This was clearly done intentionally as it was observed over a period of time and burial was actively observed during a Ministry of Mining and Critical Minerals inspection,” the report reads.

The gold and coal exploration mine, roughly 30 kilometres north of Kamloops near Jamieson Creek, was inspected four times in less than a month. During one visit ministry staff spoke with the operator of an excavator at the site.

According to the report, he told them he was contracted for the job and, when asked about the garbage he was burying, he said, “What else am I supposed to do?”

Ministry staff took aerial photos of the site over the multiple inspections, where there were a few travel trailers and sea cans, along with a plastic outhouse and other waste. On Aug. 6, the pit was filled and the material was gone.

Ministry inspectors concluded it was all buried and estimated the company avoided around $111,000 in landfill fees.

Westkam initially requested an opportunity to responded to the ministry, but did not follow through, according to the report.

On Dec. 1, the company was given 30 days to pay the fine or file an appeal.