The Tahltan Nation has voted in favour of the impact benefits agreement (IBA) for Seabridge Gold’s KSM project, marking another milestone for the new gold mine that the TSX-listed company plans to build in north-western British Columbia.
The Tahltan Nation and Seabridge have reached agreement on the terms of cooperation and benefits agreement, with 77.8% of the nation voting in favour of the KSM project IBA.
The KSM IBA provides the Tahltan Nation with “far reaching economic benefits and strong commitments to the environmental management of the land that we hold sacred”, said Tahltan central government president Chad Norman Day.
Seabridge chairperson and CEO Rudi Fronk responded that the company believed that the KSM IBA provided the basis for a “genuine partnership between the KSM project and the Tahltan Nation for decades to come”.
“The Tahltan Nation’s representatives have made many valuable contributions to the evolution of KSM. We have listened to their environmental, cultural and economic concerns, which have been rooted in the best interests of the Tahltan Nation, and we have crafted ways of addressing these concerns into KSM’s design.”
The Tahltan Nation’s territory spans 95 933 km2 of north-west British Columbia or the equivalent of 11% of the province. Tahltan territory includes 70% of British Columbia’s Golden Triangle mining district. Tahltan territory is home to three of the province’s 19 operating mines.