B.C.’s Ministry of Environment and Parks issued the penalties after Barkerville Gold Mines failed to conduct 174 samples and leaked toxic metals into the Cariboo watershed.
Barkerville Gold Mines Bonanza Ledge mine was the first of two mines to go into production near Wells, B.C. | Submitted
A company operating two active gold mines in B.C. has been fined over $162,000 for failing to monitor its operations and leaking mine waste into the environment.
Barkerville Gold Mines Ltd. (BGM)—a subsidiary of Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd.— owns two gold mines and a processing mill in B.C.’s Cariboo region, as well as another mine it said is “shovel ready.”
The Bonanza Ledge mine is located at the headwaters of Lowhee Creek and Stouts Gulch between the historic Barkerville townsite and the community of Wells, B.C. Ore extracted from the mine on Barkerville Mountain is typically transported to the company’s other Quesnel River mine for processing.
Between late 2022 and early 2025, the company failed to carry out sampling at Bonanza Ledge on 174 occasions, according to a recent decision from Jason Bourgeois, delegate of the director of the Environmental Management Act.
According to Bourgeois, the operational obligation to monitor and sample waste water at mines is fundamental to the Ministry of Environment and Parks’ ability to oversee the industry.
“The failure to implement these monitoring programs, particularly over an extended period and across multiple sites, can deprive the ministry of critical data needed to assess the impact of discharges on receiving environments,” said the official in his decision.
Another set of penalties were handed to BGM for discharging mine waste into the surrounding environment.
Inspectors found the company breached provincial waste water limits for a long list of potentially dangerous substances on dozens of occasions in 2023 and 2024.
Dissolved cadmium levels spiked seven and a half times above permit limits, while levels of total nickel and iron climbed more than 12- and 16-fold their regulatory ceiling.
Bourgeois noted that cadmium toxicity can negatively affect wildlife, causing cellular damage, decreased metabolic activity, increased mortality, decreased growth and disruptions in reproduction.
Iron toxicity can lead to gill damage, smothering of organisms or their eggs, and can impair feeding success, he added. Meanwhile, nickel toxicity can affect respiratory function and can lead to damage to gill structure, liver, intestine and kidneys during long-term exposures.
‘Not an isolated issue’
The company’s history of non-compliance impacted Bourgeois’s decision on the latest “major” breaches.
Between 2017 and 2022, BGM was repeatedly found out of compliance for discharging waste water hundreds of times at the Bonanza Ledge mine. The breaches culminated in a $276,360 administrative penalty in 2024 for persistent failures to meet permit requirements.
That penalty originally topped $1.4 million but was later reduced due to regulatory limits and the extraordinary circumstances brought on by a global pandemic.
Meanwhile, only a couple of kilometres north of Bonanza Ledge, the B.C. government approved mining permits for BGM’s Caribou Gold project—a project the company forecasts will produce 1.89 million ounces of gold over a decade.
Both mines lie within the traditional territory of the Xatśūll First Nation, which opposed Caribou Gold and has spent years in negotiations with BGM over the Bonanza Ledge mine.
Xatśūll Chief Rhonda Phillips said the latest penalties are “significant” but also part of a broader pattern of environmental sanctions levelled against BGM.
“It’s kind of sad to see that despite previous fines and penalties, there are still failures happening,” she said. “It’s just not an isolated issue.”
“For every infraction or non-compliance that is identified, there’s a real question about how many are going undetected or unenforced.”
Phillips also raised concerns over the broader environmental compliance and enforcement process—one she said occurs “behind closed doors” and fails to properly include impacted First Nations.
“We need to be part of that compliance and enforcement decision, and not informed after the fact,” she said.
Without more scientific studies looking at the cumulative impact that large mine projects have on the environment and human health, Phillips said the province won’t be able to make informed decision on permitting.
“It’s contaminating our water,” she said. “That concerns me because it’s our wildlife. We’re feeding off of that.”
BGM ‘committed’ to meeting regulatory requirements, will file appeal
BGM spokesperson Jill Walker said in an email that the company was “committed to meeting regulatory requirements and continuously working to improving environmental performance in accordance with industry best practices.”
The spokesperson said the company is filing an appeal over the latest penalties and that “the matter may be subject to judicial review.”
“BGM remains committed to environmental stewardship, regulatory compliance, and ongoing engagement with Indigenous nations, the District of Wells, the province of British Columbia and other stakeholders,” Walker wrote.
In submissions, Bourgeois found the company made gradual progress toward installing and commissioning a waste treatment plant at the mine. That included installing a barium sulphate treatment plant and purchasing an advanced biological wastewater treatment reactor.
According to Walker, the company spent $15 million on a new plant, which is in the final stages of commissioning.
“Additional improvements have been made to existing treatment systems, including increased operational capacity, enhanced treatment processes, and the addition of external technical support,” Walker said.
Despite the progress, efforts to monitor and treat mine wastewater faced several delays—something Bourgeois said could only partly be attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Altogether, the ministry official found BGM’s environmental breaches allowed it to avoid at least $63,000 in sampling and laboratory costs.
Company penalized for mine contact water along roadway
The province also issued penalties to BGM in connection with a May 22, 2025, incident when a berm along a two-kilometre section of road was breached 14 times. That led mine contact water to discharge into the environment in another “major” breach of B.C.’s environmental laws.
According to the decision, the mine waste water had the potential to spike concentrations of total suspended solids, which when discharged into an aquatic environment can absorb heat and block light vegetation needs to survive. If those plants die, they decay, leading to a depletion of a waterbody’s oxygen levels.
High levels of total suspended solids are also dangerous to aquatic creatures, as the particles can clog gills, interfere with navigation, and smother organisms and their eggs at the bottom of a river or stream.
For its part, BGM claimed the water was not mine effluent, instead describing it as surface runoff from precipitation and snowmelt.
The ministry official disagreed, finding the haul road in question was used for heavy vehicle equipment traffic directly related to mining.
“I am not persuaded by BGM that this runoff is not mine-contact water,” wrote Bourgeois.
https://www.biv.com/news/environment/bc-gold-company-fined-162k-for-environmental-failures-12204953
