Proposed volcanic-rock mine divides northern New Brunswick town

In a vast quarry on New Brunswick's north shore, Réjean Carrier looks up at towering walls of ashen-grey rock, cut deep into the landscape. 

"We have this presence of volcanic ashes in a zone around Dalhousie," he explains in French, pointing out a rock called pozzolan. "It will bring good jobs to the area."

Carrier, president of Quebec-based Carboniq Inc., hopes to turn an existing quarry into an open mine to extract the material as a low-carbon alternative for the cement industry.

His vision is to take the pozzolan from a small mountain, process it at a plant in the area, and export it globally using nearby port and rail lines.

The existing rock quarry has operated as a non-conforming use within Dalhousie town boundaries but is much smaller than the project Carboniq imagines.

In the community of Dalhousie, the prospect of a new mine is raising questions over how to balance the economic benefits with potential impacts on the environment.

The community has faced economic struggles in recent years, struggling to reinvent itself after the loss of three major industries. The closure of a paper mill, a chemical plant and a power generation station has led to shuttered businesses and a declining population. 

The idea of a new mine is being embraced by some residents, with talk of hundreds of jobs during construction and as many as 168 once the processing plant is in operation. But others fear an open pit mine, near a school and residential areas, could impact their quality of life and harm the environment.

Mayor Normand Pelletier said residents have lots of questions and the developers will have to make their case to the community. He said people are divided on the issue.

"We have a lot of people that are interested and would like to see a project as such take place," he said. "For one, it's going to create good-paying jobs.

"We're kind of anxious to hear the company and how they're going to promote it and make those public consultations to ease the pressure on the citizens."

The natural resource is the result of the region's prehistoric past. Four hundred million years ago, Sugarloaf Mountain in nearby Campbellton was a volcano. As it spewed ash across the landscape, it created layers of pozzolan rock.

At the Dalhousie site, studies have revealed the deposit of rock is deep enough to last at least 100 years, according to the developers.

Pozzolan is now being looked at as a potential solution to drastically lower emissions in cement manufacturing. In current mixtures, limestone is added to a kiln and decomposes under high heat, which produces greenhouse gas emissions. But with pozzolan, that step in the process is avoided entirely.