WATCH: Plugged pipe causes tailing spill from Princeton area copper mine

PRINCETON – The operations of a copper mine near Princeton have been curtailed and a handful of downstream residents have been ordered to not use their water.

That’s because a plugged pipe caused a storage tank to overflow Wednesday evening, spilling about 250 cubic metres of slurry. Slurry is a combination of finely ground waste rock and water.

“As soon as we saw the overflow, we shut down mill right away to make sure nothing else came out and we controlled the flow. Then we resorted to making sure we managed that containment and did sediment control,” says mine manager Don Strickland.

However, some of the slurry entered Wolf Creek. The company placed hay bales and cloth curtains in the creek to try to prevent the material from flowing off mine property.

“We’re taking samples every two hours. We’re looking see if any sediment came down the stream. There’s no indication sediment came down the stream,” says Strickland.

But Interior Health isn’t taking any chances. It’s telling any downstream residents who draw water from Wolf Creek, or nearby wells, to not use it for anything, even bathing. The mining company doesn’t believe there’s any danger.

“We have an environmentally benign site, no acid generation, no nasty chemicals or nasty impurities,” says Strickland.

Initial test results from water samples collected along the creek will be known Saturday.

While the mill that grinds the raw ore into concentrate has been shut down, the material is still being mined and stockpiled. Employment for the 420 mine workers has not been affected.