The BC TRCR Committee is pleased to announce that the action-packed hybrid virtual and in-person Symposium in Burnaby, BC from September 23 to 26th, 2024 was a great success.

A press release: 2024 News Release -TRCR, announced the winners of the Mine Reclamation Awards, Jake McDonald Memorial Scholarships and Poster session and the Tony Milligan Award for Best Paper given out in 2024.

2024 Reclamation Award Winners:

Glencore Canada received the Jake McDonald Mine Reclamation Award for the reclamation of the Central South bulk sample project and exploration area in north-central BC. Reclamation work involved moving and recontouring more than 300,000 cubic metres of material and reclaiming 56 kilometres of exploration trails and roads along with 96 drill pads. Reclamation activities included mounding to promote lichen survival and establishment in alpine areas as well in forested areas to create microsites for tree seedlings. To promote caribou habitat, conifer seedlings were chosen over shrubs in establishing cover to reduce attractants for other species. Glencore is recognized for their quality of work, extent of land reclaimed and completion of work of a high standard.

Jake McDonald award winners (L-R): Dayton Strosser, Mathew White and Sean Sharpe, MEMLI.

R.E. Postill and Sons were presented with the Sand and Gravel Category Award for their Rosebush Land Improvement Project at Coldstream Ranch in the North Okanagan. Following gravel extraction from a 68-hectare site on the ranch, the area was reclaimed with clean fill and topsoil and planted with a grass-legume mixture to provide forage for the ranch’s beef cattle operations. Reclamation of the area improved the agricultural capability to Class 2, or better across the site. Additionally, a reduced slope on part of the site has resulted in 9.5 hectares of new farmland that can now be cultivated.

Sand and Gravel award winners (L-R): Linsey Johannson, Tim Antill, MEMLI and Jamie Johannson

Elk Valley Resources received the Coal Mine Category Award for the company’s approach to designing the reclamation of the West Line Creek rock spoil at their Line Creek Operations. The project employed an innovative geomorphic design approach using natural analogues for inspiration. The reclamation project, which is underway and to be completed in 2025, includes varying slope aspects and surfaces, a meandering gully and a steep original ground ridge to both improve visual quality and to provide connectivity to natural landscapes allowing wildlife such as bighorn sheep to use the area.

Coal Category Award winners from L-R: DJ Formanski (Engineer, Reclamation Planning), Jacqueline Dube (Reclamation Coordinator, Line Creek Operations) and Clayton Dubyk (Former Reclamation Manager).

Jake McDonald Memorial Scholarships and Judged Student Poster Session

The TRCR is also pleased to announce that its 2024 Jake McDonald Memorial Scholarship recipient is Samantha Gidora, a professional biologist, who is pursuing a Master of Science degree in the Environmental Science program at Thompson Rivers University. Additionally, Ms. Gidora received the judged student poster award on her work in detecting bats via environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling.

Scholarship award winner (L-R): Jonathan Buchanan, AME and Samantha Gidora.

Tony Milligan Book Award:

Tony Milligan was a founding member of the TRCR, a past manager of reclamation at the Elkview Mine, and a BC reclamation inspector. Throughout his career, Tony had a keen interest in increasing our understanding of mine reclamation. Each year, the Milligan Book Award is given to the paper at last year’s BC Mine Reclamation Symposium judged to best address technical and practical aspects of reclamation.

Book award winner (L-R) Dean Mackenzie and Steve O’Hara, Gibraltar Mine.

Based on a survey of Symposium participants in 2023, Dean Mackenzie was presented with the Tony Milligan Book Award for his paper, “Forest surface soil management from textbook to operations” presented at the 46th BC Mine Reclamation Symposium in Prince George, BC in 2023.

All 17 technical papers from the 2024 Symposium are now available at UBC’s eCIRCLE on the Publications page. We would like to thank our TRCR Papers chair, Lauchlan Fraser of Thompson Rivers University (TRU) and his 2024 paper review subcommittee of Jaimie Dickson, Landon Benson, Michael Preston, Anayansi Cohen-Fernandez, Steve O’Hara, and Yihting Lin.

Symposium Event:

The conference began on September 23rd at the Burnaby Conference Centre with two half-day short courses at which 110 people participated.

Morning Session: Developing a Design Basis Memorandum for Reclamation and Closure Planning by Justin Straker of Integral Ecology Group and Mike Okane from Okane Consultants from 9:00am – 12:00pm.

Afternoon Session: Applications of Enhanced Passive Treatment in Mining by Monique Simair of Maven Water and Environment from 1:00pm – 4:00pm.

On September 24th, a full day field tour of Reclamation Diversity in Aggregate Mining in the Lower Mainland was held and remarkably, with sunny weather.

Aggregate site in Abbotsford, BC

On September 25 and 26th, Technical Paper presentations were heard with many questions asked during paper presentations regarding reclamation and biodiversity. The presentation 2-day agenda is found here: agenda

Nearly 270 people attended the symposium including more than 210 people in person at the Delta Hotels by Marriott Burnaby Conference Centre; attendees ranged from biologists and engineers to students and representatives of Indigenous nations. Eight indigenous representatives were given free registrations from the TRCR with travel/stay stipends provided by the TRCR, mining companies and Governments that supported them to come.

An exhibitor area comprising 20 manned booths was included at the conference centre to discuss products or services from a wide range of companies such as, seed producers, reclamation contractors, environmental consultants, analytical services, and software developers.

Thanks so much to our conference facilitator Aevias for a well organized week and also the 24 sponsors that so graciously helped the TRCR to carry out this year’s Symposium (please see their logos scrolling on the right of the website).

Congratulations to all this years Winners.

We will see you next year for the 48th Annual Mine Reclamation Conference in Penticton, BC with a mine tour of Copper Mountain mine in Princeton, BC.