The BC TRCR Committee is pleased to announce that the action-packed Symposium in Penticton, BC from September 22 to 25th, 2025, was a great success.
The TRCR originated in the early 1970s in response to a demonstrated need in the British Columbia mining sector for greater government-industry communication in the area of environmental protection and reclamation. Membership is drawn from industry, provincial and federal government agencies, exploration, sand and gravel and mining associations, and universities and colleges.
The TRCR sponsors the BC Mine Reclamation Symposium and has done so for the last 40 plus years (the 50th anniversary will be in 2027).
A press release was issued on September 25th in the 2025_TRCR News Release, wherein the winners were announced of the annual Mine Reclamation Awards, the Jake McDonald Memorial Scholarships, Student Poster sessions and the annual Tony Milligan Award for Best Paper presented in 2024.
The presentation of the reclamation awards is found here: 2025 TRCR Awards Presentation.
2025 Reclamation Award Winners:
Elk Valley Resources (EVR) won the Jake McDonald Annual Reclamation Award. This award recognizes EVR’s progressive reclamation of the Swift Project at Fording River’s operations. Located near Elkford in southeast BC, the Project set a goal to produce 170 million metric tonnes of steelmaking coal over 25 years. Reclamation activities started in 2020, and today, the Project demonstrates operational excellence in progressive reclamation. A defining aspect of the Project is its use of a bottom-up lift construction method for landform development. This approach has enabled early and safe reclamation that can be done simultaneously with mining. Importantly, Glencore is proposing the Fording River Extension (FRX) Project to extend EVR’s existing Fording River Operations. The FRX Project is anticipated to extend the lifespan of Fording River Operations by approximately 35 years, which is a critical economic engine to southeast British Columbia.
Greg Sword and Lori Lemke from Fording River, Elk Valley Resources hefting the Jade Award
Amrize (formerly Lafarge) scooped the Sand & Gravel Award for its achievement of reclamation through Abbotsford Gravel Sales. The team proposed a collaborative solution with neighbouring landowners and the Agricultural Commission to restore 30 acres of land as well as mining and restoring 85 acres of land. This project demonstrates how the aggregate industry can work collaboratively with agricultural stakeholders to responsibly access essential resources while supporting land stewardship and food production goals.
Lance Dexter from Amrize accepting the Sand and Gravel award from TRCR’s Derek Holmes on the right
The 2024 Jade award winner was also presented with a keeper trophy for returning the coveted and heavy award that is depicted in the hands of the 2025 winner from EVR above. The 2024 Jake McDonald Mine Reclamation Award winner was Glencore Canada for the reclamation of the Central South bulk sample project and exploration area in north-central BC.
Jake McDonald Memorial Scholarships and Judged Student Poster Session
The TRCR is pleased to announce the 2025 Scholarship recipients which are Rabeya Shikdar Orpa and Zhaohui (Sunny) Han, Thompson Rivers University Master of Science students. We also thank them for being session co-presenters at the technical sessions.
Scholarship award winners (L-R) Rabeya Shikdar Orpa, Sunny Han and TRCR’s Wendy Gardner
The judged poster sessions that were presented at the Symposium was won by Rabeya Shikdar Orpa for her poster describing “Reviving Native Ecosystems: Harnessing Soil Amendments to Reclaim Plant Communities in Post-mine Environments” which was developed in Dr. Lauchlan Fraser’s lab at TRU.
Judges with Rabeya describing her winning poster
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.
Based on a survey of Symposium participants in 2024, Jacqueline Dube and DJ Formanski of Elk Valley Resources were awarded the Tony Milligan Book Award (created in recognition of the contributions Tony Milligan made to mine reclamation). This award was presented based on the quality of their paper, ‘An operational approach to geomorphic design in mine reclamation : A case study from Teck Coal Line Creek Operations’, presented at last year’s symposium.
Stephanie Najda on behalf of EVR accepted the book awards from Kelly Dube of the TRCR on the right.
The Award winners and the work they completed to gain them are also posted along with the Award criteria and previous recipients on the awards page.
Symposium Event:
More than 270 people attended this year’s symposium, including biologists, engineers, mine workers and representatives, partners and members of First Nations communities, and university students.
The conference began on September 22nd at the Penticton Trade and Convention Centre with two half-day short courses for which 59 people attended.
Morning Session:
Stantec Consulting Ltd. – Overview of Preparing Reclamation Liability Cost Estimates for BC Mines Act Permit Applications
At this workshop, Lionel Borges, B.Sc and Lori Stewart, B.Sc, M.Sc., P.Geo provided guidance on navigating the complexities of Reclamation Liability Cost Estimate (RLCEs) for major mines in British Columbia, based on the recent 2024 BC Ministry of Mining and Critical Minerals (MCM) guidance update. Through a practical, applied approach, the workshop delved into real-world applications using a comprehensive example reclamation project.
Afternoon Session:
EDI Environmental Dynamics Inc. – Monitoring Soil and Vegetation for Progressive Reclamation and Closure: Experimental Design and Field Considerations
Jennifer Muir, MSc, RPBio and Patrick Audet, PhD, PAg, RPBio led this workshop to describe the underlying principles, experimental design and field considerations for monitoring soil and vegetation as key components of mine site reclamation and closure. In the course, participants were provided an overview of soil conservation and revegetation; experimental design, spatial considerations and data collection; and data management and reporting.
On September 23rd, a full day mine tour of HudBay Minerals Copper Mountain mine in Princeton, BC was led under the guidance of Colleen Hughes and reclamation staff from the mine. The tour highlighted the progression that the mine has undertaken in mine reclamation from planting agronomics on smooth slopes to detailed mechanical site preparation, phased approach to planting, and large scale research trials.
Copper Mountain mine tour group mustering from the tour buses
Examples of progressive reclamation and wildlife additions
On September 24 and 25th, (24) technical paper presentations, one panel discussion on “Is Mine Reclamation an Act of Reconciliation”, and one Mine Tour Video: Wolfe Creek Realignment – Fish Habitat Offsetting Project were heard by the attendees with many questions asked after the presentations regarding environmental protection, mine reclamation and indigenous collaboration based on their technical papers.
Paper presentation by Stefan Humphries from SRK on Copper Mountain’s Wolfe Creek project
The 2-day agenda is found here: TRCR agenda.
Technical papers from the Symposium will soon be available at UBC’s eCIRCLE on the Publications page. We would like to thank our 2025 TRCR Papers chair, Justin Straker from the CLRA and his paper review subcommittee of Kim Bittman, Michael Preston, Jaimie Dickson, Jennifer McConnachie, Lauchlan Fraser, Anayansi Cohen-Fernandez and Elizabeth Miller.
An exhibitor area comprising 30 manned booths was included at the conference centre to discuss products or services from a wide range of companies such as, seed and native plant producers, conservation and reclamation contractors, environmental consultants, and analytical services.
Thanks so much to our conference facilitators of the BCTRCR Planning Team with Missy Preston and Martina Waldrich, who organized the week and also to the 20 sponsors that so graciously helped the TRCR to carry out this year’s Symposium, including our Platinum sponsor Barrick. The sponsor board sign is shown here, and please see their logos scrolling on the right of the website which goes directly to their websites.
Congratulations to all this year’s Winners.
The TRCR organization was spurred to promote mine reclamation since 1969, when mining companies were required by law to reclaim mine site lands when mine life ends. BC was one of the first jurisdictions in Canada to implement mine reclamation legislation, and the first to extend this policy to exploration sites. Since then, the provincial government under the Ministry of Mining and Critical Minerals has required companies to post a reclamation security bond before work (for mineral exploration and mining) at any site.
We will see you next year for the 49th Annual Mine Reclamation Conference in Fort St. John, BC with a mine tour of NE coal mines in the Tumbler Ridge area.
