Interpretation

1In this regulation, "placer mineral" has the same meaning as in the Mineral Tenure Act.

Exemptions

2A person who carries out a class of operation, activity, industry or work referred to in section 3 is exempt from section 6 (2) and (3) of the Environmental Management Act in respect of that class if the person meets the conditions and circumstances set out in section 3 and provides to a director on the director’s request information the director considers sufficient to determine the existence and extent of the discharge.

[en. B.C. Reg. 321/2004, s. 22.]

Classes

3The classes of operations, activities, industries or works referred to in section 2 are discharges into the environment of waste from mining a placer mineral where the discharges are from

(a)hand panning for gold,

(b)testing for the presence of placer minerals by means of equipment movable by hand where

(i)neither mercury nor chemicals are used,

(ii)the diameter of the intake of a washwater delivery system does not exceed 38 mm,

(iii)tailings are discharged to a tailings pond with a minimum of 0.5 m freeboard, and

(iv)the water in the tailings pond

(A) is pumped back to the operation for reuse,

(B) is left in the pond and allowed to seep into the ground in a manner which does not result in suspended solids entering a body of water at any point downstream of the operation, or

(C) is partly pumped back as referred to in clause (A) and is partly left as referred to in clause (B), or

(c)mining production where neither mercury nor chemicals are used to recover a placer mineral, and

(i)the mine is located, as shown on the National Topographic System of Mapping, on Birch Creek 104N/11W, Boulder Creek 104N/11W, Ruby Creek 104N/11W, Otter Creek and its tributaries 104N/11W, Wright Creek 104N/11W, Quartz Creek 104N/11E, Spruce Creek and its tributaries 104N/11W and 104N/12E, Pine Creek between Birch Creek and Atlin Lake 104N/11W and 104N/12E, McKee Creek 104N/5E and 104N/6W, Snowy Creek 104P/5E, or Dease Creek 104J/9E, or

(ii)the mine is not located on a creek referred to in subparagraph (i) and the tailings are discharged to a tailings pond where the water is disposed of as set out in paragraph (b) (iii) and (iv).