B.C. company wants to open $300M made-in-Canada sand mine to fuel anticipated fracking, LNG boom

A B.C.-based company wants to open a sand mine north of Prince George to provide a made-in-Canada solution to an anticipated boost in liquefied natural gas production.

Vitero Minerals' proposed silica sand mine, about 60 kilometres north of the city, near Bear Lake, would produce sand used in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to prop open the fractures that are created during crude oil and natural gas extraction.

Right now, the company says, most of that sand is imported from Wisconsin, but amid a "Buy Canadian" movement, CEO Scott Broughton believes that should apply to the industrial sector, as well.

"We should make that locally. We should capture that market," he said while speaking at the Minerals North conference held in Prince George this week.

Broughton said the project has an estimated value of $300 million and would include an industrial mine, quarry and finishing plant and provide approximately 150 ongoing jobs, while vice-president of operations Cullen McCormick characterized it as a "glorified sand and gravel pit" in terms of appearance and process.

B.C.'s Environmental Assessment Office is currently seeking public feedback on the project and will be hosting an open house at the Bear Lake Community Hall on May 13, but the proposal comes as the province is promising to fast-track select new industrial developments — and as conservation groups are sounding the alarm about B.C. falling behind on its environmental goals amid the rush to diversify the economy away from the United States.

If it moves forward, sand from the mine would be sold into the Montney oil and gas basin bordering northeast B.C. and Alberta, where industry is anticipating increased demand as the LNG Canada facility comes online in Kitimat, on B.C.'s North Coast, later this year.

That project will take gas shipped by pipeline from near Dawson Creek, B.C. and cool it for storage and export to Asian markets overseas.

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) has been identified by both the federal and provincial governments as a key way to reduce Canada's reliance on the United States as a market for energy exports amid a trade war initiated by U.S. President Donald Trump's threats of economic annexation.

And it's not alone: there are five potential LNG projects in British Columbia at various stages of approval, and the province's NDP government has promised to move quickly to get them through the queue.

But while advocates for the industry say LNG is the cleanest-burning fossil fuel in the world and helps replace emissions worldwide, critics point out that its production is resource-intensive and argue it is contributing to, rather than mitigating, the climate crisis.

Dr. Melissa Lem, a family physician and president of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, has spoken out against the expansion of the LNG industry, saying that increasing demand for fracking worsens health outcomes by increasing emissions.

"Producing and burning fossil fuels have serious human health implications, especially for those living near fracking and LNG infrastructure," she said in a statement.

"Expanding LNG exports ties B.C. to a volatile, polluting industry [and] will drive up health-care costs, insurance rates and the cost of living while worsening health, air and water quality, and climate impacts."