VICTORIA – The BC Environmental Assessment Office announced today that it has rejected the application for Compliance Energy’s proposed Raven Coal Mine, located near Fanny Bay in the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island.

The application was in the screening process and was set to enter its final 180-day review period today. Instead, provincial regulators have issued a scathing 114-page evaluation of the mine application and denied that the review proceed until information requirements are met. Among the many problems are the lack of consultation with First Nations, insufficient information around local drinking water and air quality impacts, and failure to explain how effects of industrial waste and tailings would be mitigated over the long term.

Since its initial proposal over two years ago, the Raven project has been strongly opposed by Comox Valley residents, citizen and community groups, businesses and environmentalists, and municipal governments have passed motions to oppose the project barring further study. The K’ómoks First Nation has also expressed concern about the mine’s impact on the riparian ecosystem and their ongoing treaty negotiations.

“The Environmental Assessment Office has acknowledged the serious gaps in information in this application and sent the company back to the drawing board,” said Torrance Coste, the Wilderness Committee’s Vancouver Island Campaigner.

“The decision serves to highlight this company's utter lack of commitment to the local communities, First Nations and our shared environment, and is just another indication that this mine doesn't belong on Vancouver Island," said Coste.

The Wilderness Committee has been vocal in its opposition to the Raven Coal Mine throughout the assessment process, given the negative impact the project would have on the local environment and on more sustainable economic activities on Vancouver Island.

The company will have to address the glaring omissions in its application, then re-submit the project again for a second 30-day screening process. If conditions are met and the application survives that screening, it will enter a final 180-day review during which a public comment period will be held.