This session brings together a panel with representation from Xatśūll First Nation, Spanish Mountain Gold, and the British Columbia Environmental Assessment Office. With the support of a moderator, the panel will discuss the successes, challenges, and opportunities experienced over the last 10 years of engagement on the Spanish Mountain Gold project.

Xatśūll First Nation (pronounced "hat-shall" and meaning "on the cliff where the bubbling water comes out") is a Secwepemc (“Shuswap”) Nation, with two reserves on the Fraser River: Deep Creek and Soda Creek, 20 km north of Williams Lake. Located in B.C.’s Cariboo region, an area of historic and contemporary importance to Canada’s mining industry, Xatśūll territory currently hosts three large active mines (Imperial Metals Mt. Polley, Barkerville gold mines, and Taseko Gibraltar Mine), along with several projects in various stages of development. Spanish Mountain Gold Ltd., is proposing the construction, operation and decommissioning of the Spanish Mountain gold project, an open-pit gold mine northeast of Williams Lake within Xatśūll First Nation’s territory. The project would include an open mine pit, waste rock storage facilities, a rock processing plant, an overland conveyor, water treatment facilities, and an electrical transmission line.

The panel hopes to educate and share lessons learned from each organization’s perspective, in order to support communities and companies operating in similar environments across the country. The intended audience for this session are Indigenous communities who have multiple proposed and operating mines in their territory, industry representatives who are navigating rapidly evolving legal, regulatory, and ESG expectations, and government delegates who are interested in learning about the implementation of the new B.C. Environmental Assessment Act (2018).