Raven Underground Coal Project

Updated March 6, 2010 (Section 11 order issued)

Compliance Energy and partners are proposing a new coal mine on Vancouver Island. The Raven Underground Coal Project would be located in the Tsable River watershed between Parksville and Courtenay on Vancouver Island.

The mine is projected to produce 2.2 million tonnes of coal per year or 44 million tonnes over the 20 year expected life of the mine. Of the 2.2 million tonnes per year, 700,000 tonnes will remain at the mine site as waste, and 1.5 million tonnes of "clean coal" will be shipped to the hoped-for Asian markets.

Options for shipping the coal include truck to Port Alberni (the preferred route), to Duke Point, or to Middle Point in Campbell River.

The project triggers both a provincial and federal environmental review.

A project description has been filed with the BC Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) and the project is now in Pre-Application status with the EAO. It will be reviewed, draft Application Information Requirements (AIR) - until recently referred to as Terms of Reference - for a project review will be published, and the public will be given 40 days to comment on the draft AIR. Following that, the final AIR will be issued, and the proponent will disappear for a while, preparing its formal application and environmental impact statement.

When the application is submitted, the project review will move into Application status. This could be months away, or years - projects are extremely variable in this respect. But once the application has been accepted, the environmental assessment must complete within 180 days.

There is no indication that the company will require any zoning or permits from the Comox Regional District. Many authorizations are required from the province - including a mine permit and a lease for surface lands from the Integrated Lands Management Bureau (ILMB) - and from federal agencies (section 7.2 of the pre-application)

Compliance is the majority partner in the Raven Project. Through its wholly owned subsidiary, Compliance Coal Corporation, Compliance holds 60% of the Comox Joint Venture with two partners, Itochu Corporation and LG International, both Asian trading companies each holding 20%.

Project home at the BC Environmental Assessment Office:
http://a100.gov.bc.ca/appsdata/epic/html/deploy/epic_project_home_351.html

Project Description
http://tinyurl.com/lqkkl7

Raven Project on the Compliance Energy website
http://www.complianceenergy.com/projects/raven_coal/index.shtml

Conceptual Site Plan -as of Feb 2010 (click on the map for a larger image)