Photo by: Bloomberg
TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Quebec will start holding public inquiries on the province’s uranium industry next week in an effort to iron out the issues concerning the industry in the province, with the help of specialists and resource persons.
Created by the Bureau d'audiences publiques sur l'environnement (BAPE), the question and information phase of the commission’s inquiry would start on September 3 in Mistissini, northern Quebec, from where it would move to Quebec City for two-and-a-half weeks and end back in the far north of the province, in Kangiqsualujjuaq, on September 25.
The commission would be chaired by Louis-Gilles Francoeur and include Michele Goyer and Joseph Zayed. The commission would also work with the James Bay Advisory Committee on the Environment and the Kativik Environmental Advisory Committee.
The commission’s mandate would be to examine all aspects of the uranium mining sector – from exploration, mining, environmental, health and governance to storage, emergencies and long-term impacts, as well as other issues.
After a year of legal wrangling with the Quebec government and local First Nations, Quebec-based uranium explorer Strateco Resources in June said it was forced to adopt a cost-cutting programme and shutter its flagship Matoush camp in the Otish mountains, in the north of the province.
The Boucherville, Quebec-based firm blamed the Quebec government's refusal to issue the final permit needed to start the advanced exploration phase of the Matoush project for its decision. The project has been on standby for over a year, since a moratorium was placed on issuing exploration, development or mining permits for uranium projects in the province on March 28, 2013, until an independent study of the impacts of uranium was completed.