Imperial Metals Corporation, known as IMI Imperial Metals Inc. until 2002, is a Canadian metals and mining company. Engaging in the acquisition, exploration, development, mining, and production of base and precious metals in North America, the majority of its holdings and operations are in

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

. In 2016 the Company produced 119.17 million pounds of copper, 94,930 ounces gold and 330,960 ounces silver from its Mount Polley and Red Chris mines.

Operations

Imperial has one operating mine in British Columbia, two mines in care and maintenance in British Columbia, and two exploration stage projects also in British Columbia currently under development.

Mount Polley Mine (Care & Maintenance As of January 8, 2019)

The

Mount Polley mine The Mount Polley mine is a Canadian List of gold mines in Canada, gold and List of copper mines in Canada, copper mine located in British Columbia near the towns of Williams Lake, British Columbia, Williams Lake, and Likely, British Columbia, Like ...

located 100 km northeast of

Williams Lake, British Columbia Williams Lake is a city in the Central Interior of British Columbia, in the central part of a region known as the Cariboo. Williams Lake is the second largest city, by population of metropolitan area, in the Cariboo after neighbouring Quesnel. ...

is an

open pit Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a borrow. This form of minin ...

copper/gold mine that started operation in 1997. Exploration on the property continues concurrent to mining operations with the expected lifetime of the mine expiring in 2025. In August 2014 the mine was the site of a dam breach. In the short term after the breach, the mining company faced protests by local activists including members of the Secwepemc Nation.

Red Chris Project

The Red Chris project is an operating open-pit copper/gold. The mine property is located outside of the community of

Iskut Iskut is a small, mostly Indigenous community in the Stikine Country of northwestern British Columbia. It is located on Highway 37, at the north end of Eddontenajon Lake just south of Dease Lake and the crossing of the Stikine River. Communi ...

, with the

Klappan River The Klappan River is a major tributary of the Stikine River in northwestern British Columbia, Canada. It flows north from an area known as the Sacred Headwaters, which is the source not only of this river but also of the Nass, Skeena, Spatsizi a ...

flowing through the property less than 20 km from its confluence with the

Stikine River The Stikine River is a major river in northern British Columbia (BC), Canada and southeastern Alaska in the United States. It drains a large, remote upland area known as the Stikine Country east of the Coast Mountains. Flowing west and south f ...

. The mine's proximity to the

Sacred Headwaters The Sacred Headwaters is a large subalpine drainage basin centred around Klappan Mountain of the Klappan Range in northern British Columbia. It is the source of three wild salmon rivers: the Skeena River, Nass River, and Stikine River. It is als ...

and the transboundary nature of environmental management in this region has raised concerns across the border on the

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...

n panhandle. On February 1, 2015, the Globe and Mail reported that commercial fisherman, native organizations, and the mayors of

Sitka russian: Ситка , native_name_lang = tli , settlement_type = Consolidated city-borough , image_skyline = File:Sitka 84 Elev 135.jpg , image_caption = Downtown Sitka in 1984 , image_size ...

and Petersburg have released a joint statement requesting an "equal seat at the table with Canada in discussions about how and if watersheds shared by both countries are developed."Hume,Mark.
Mount Polley Spill taints Alaska-B.C. mine relations
"

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

. February 1, 2015.

References

{{Reflist Companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange Mining companies of Canada