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All from the date's issue of the Cape Breton Post...as usual.

Donkin mine legislation makes its way through parliament

Section: Business

By Chris Hayes,

Donkin Coal Alliance was pleased to see legislation on the proposed $300-million Donkin mine make its way through Parliament this week, as the company's assessment of the project continues underground.

Legislation to resolve jurisdictional disputes between provincial and federal governments on the proposed coal mine project received third reading in the House of Commons Tuesday and was headed to the Senate to receive royal assent.

Project manager Darren Nicholls said Wednesday the removal of any duplication in the regulatory regime can only add to what is already a strong health and safety environment of the project.

"You work within one set of regulations, it removes any ambiguity and it clearly gives us an understanding of the regime we are going to be working under," he said. "It's very, very important because any duplication can only make it a less efficient business to run from our point of view."

MP Rodger Cuzner said Senate recommendation shouldn't be an issue.

Cuzner said there were some concerns the Bloc Quebecois would oppose the legislation since it deals with federal-provincial relations but that didn't happen, and there was all-party unanimous approval.

"It was probably three years in the making but it ran parallel to the work Xstrata was doing, so it didn't handcuff Xstrata," said the Liberal MP, who represents Cape Breton Canso.

Donkin Coal Alliance, the company formed by Xstrata and Erdene Gold, is spending $15 million to assess the feasibility of opening the mine. The Cape Breton Development Corp. abandoned the development in the 1980s, sealed the tunnels and allowed them to flood. Nicholls said the company has pumped that water - nearly 430 million litres - out of the tunnels and is at the coal face.

The company is currently setting up for an underground drilling program that will help determine the gas situation in the mine, which is crucial to making ventilation and other mine plans, he said. Hopefully by March, the company will be ready to start a pre-feasibility study.

"Everything seems to be moving in the direction we would like to see it go," he said.

A summary of the bill notes it provides a legal regime to facilitate the exploitation of the Donkin coal block and to regulate employment in connection with the operation of any mine there.

It gives the authority to have Nova Scotia laws in areas such as labour and safety regulations apply to the project.

It also deals with royalties from the exploitation of the portion of the Donkin coal block in frontier lands, with the royalties sent to the federal treasury, and then paid to the province.