Work won't stop, mining firm says
by Robert Williamson
British Columbia Bureau
Vancouver - Crews will be punching an access road through the
British Columbia wilderness this week after the Cheslatta Indian
band failed to win an injunction to effectively halt construction
of the controversial $137-million Huckleberry copper mine in an
extraordinary court hearing Friday.
Opposing lawyers for the Cheslatta and Princeton Mining Corp
were stunned late Friday when Mr. Justice Robert Hutchison of the
B.C. Supreme Court abruptly ended the day-long injunction hearing
before closing arguments were completed. The judge said his time
allotted to the case had run out.
"You've got six seconds to sing Judge Hutchison snapped at
Cheslatta lawyer Karen Wristen as she began to deliver her closing
response to Princeton's argument against an injunction. When
Ms. Wristen objected, the judge slammed shut his binders of
argument. "I'm not back until September. That's the way the ball
bounces."
Calling himself a "one-day judge," Judge Hutchison said there
is nothing in the law that requires him to deliver a decision
within a set period of time. "You have just run out of time," he
told Ms. Wristen.
The hearing had lasted for four hours when it was terminated
at 4 p.m. Judge Hutchison, who is based in Victoria and was
hearing cases in Vancouver last week, said the lawyers could submit
written closing arguments to him. But he would not guarantee that
he will make a decision before September.
Ms. Wristen and Princeton lawyer John Hunter said they had
never seen a hearing shut down just a few minutes short of
completing arguments because a judge's clock had run out.
"This is outrageous," Ms. Wristen said outside the court.
"It's just an enormous waste of the court's time." Members of the
Cheslatta band and their supporters were angry.
For the company, the lack of a decision was almost as good as
a win. "They didn't get their injunction," Princeton chairman Jim
O'Rourke said later. "Work has never stopped, so things will
continue on as normal."
The Huckleberry confrontation is being closely watched in
B.C.'s mining community, which fears that aboriginal land claims
have brought new political, legal and economic uncertainties to the
development process.
Friday's development appears to clear the way for an
uninterrupted summer of work on the Huckleberry mine - although at
least one more legal challenge is looming.
Judge Hutchison's comments during the hearing made it clear,
though, that there was little likelihood that he would issue an
injunction - if he makes any decision. The Cheslatta, he said, had
failed to show that construction work this summer would cause
irreparable harm, noting that Princeton and its Japanese partners
have money to compensate for any damage that does occur.
Another hearing in the B.C. Supreme Court is already scheduled
for early September into a Cheslatta petition seeking a halt to the
Huckleberry mine project.
The Cheslatta wanted an injunction last week to bring an
immediate halt to constriction of the half-built access road into
the Huckleberry Mountain mine site south of Houston, in west-
central B.C.
The company warned that delays could derail the constriction
schedule, greatly adding to costs. The Cheslatta wanted the court
to protect them against any claim for damages that Princeton might
seek should the injunction be issued.
The Huckleberry project has received environmental approvals
from the federal and provincial governments. However, the small
Cheslatta band continues to argue that there has been insufficient
study of the impact on area water and wildlife, and that aboriginal
rights have been affected. No land claims have been settled in the
area. Vancouver-based Princeton, with controlling 60 per cent
stake in the proposed mine, said the recent tumble in copper prices
and the scandal over enormous losses by a Sumitomo Corp. trader will
have no impact on the mine schedule, which calls for production to
start late next year.
Gibraltar Mines Ltd. of Williams Lake, B.C., said last week it
had run into problems financing the development of its Lomas Bayas
copper mine in Chile. But Mr. O'Rourke of Princeton said Friday
that he had met with his Japanese investors to confirm
Huckleberry's financing plans and construction timetable.
"They were anticipating a weakness in the price of copper, so
this hasn't come as a big surprise to them. A production decision
has been made on the Huckleberry project. The financing is in
place. It's a go."
Source: Globe and Mail - Monday, July 8, 1996