Sio Silica plans to drill fewer wells, remove less sand as part of new request for environmental licence

Alberta mining company Sio Silica has proposed to drill fewer wells and extract less sand as part of a new application for an environmental licence to bore below the surface of southeastern Manitoba.

Manitoba Environment and Climate Change started inviting comment Tuesday on a second application from Sio Silica, which initially sought environmental approval to drill 7,200 wells to the east and southeast of Winnipeg over 24 years in order to extract 33 million tonnes of sand.

Manitoba's NDP government rejected that application in 2024, after the province’s arm's-length Clean Environment Commission raised concerns about the potential effects of sand mining on subsurface water quality and geological stability.

"The commission does not have sufficient confidence that the level of risk posed to an essential source of drinking water for the region has been adequately defined," the commission said in a 2023 report.

"The mining approach proposed by Sio Silica does have merit if the risks posed to the quality of water in the affected aquifers can be better defined and the management of those risks can be adequately addressed."

In documents posted Tuesday on Environment and Climate Change's public registry, Sio Silica said its new application will address these concerns by drilling wells in a series of graduated steps over the initial five years of its proposed operations, and purifying the water it removes before returning it underground.

"The water from the silica sand slurry brought to the surface from the wells would be separated from the sand on site, undergo filtration and UV treatment before being returned down the wells," said the provincial notice about the new application.

"The separated silica sand would be transported to a previously licensed sand processing facility using a slurry transport line operating in a loop system."

Sio Silica has also reduced number of wells it plans to drill, as well as the area where they will be drilled and the volume of sand that will be removed during the first five years of proposed operations, biologist Marlene Gifford wrote on behalf of Sio Silica in a cover letter to the new application.

This phased approach will alow Sio Silica to monitor "key aspects of concern regarding the environment" for any changes within the environment, she wrote.

Company president Carla Devlin said Tuesday Sio Silica "appreciates the opportunity to turn the page" and demonstrate it has learned lessons from its previous effort to obtain an environmental license.

"We’re confident this updated application reflects a more cautious and science-driven path forward," Devlin said in a statement.

The company aims "to earn public confidence by clearly showing how we’ve addressed the [Clean Environment Commission] recommendations and strengthened every aspect of the extraction process" to ensure it's safe and sustainable, Devlin's statement said.

Sio Silica now plans to drill 23 wells during its first year of operation, 68 in the second year, 132 during each of the next two years and then 137 during the fifth year, according to a new proposal submitted to the province.