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Company News Releases...
Pacific Booker Minerals Inc. Clarifies Information about the Morrison Lake
Sockeye Salmon
Vancouver BC, November 8, 2012: The Company would like to clarify some
information in regards to the Salmon population in Morrison Lake.
The Morrison Copper/Gold Project is not located within the Skeena River
headwaters. The headwaters of the Skeena River are a subalpine basin in northern
BC adjacent to Spatsizi Wilderness Park. The Morrison Copper/Gold Project is
located at the most eastern edge of the Skeena watershed, 160 kilometers from
the Skeena River, 65 kilometers east of Smithers, BC, adjacent to Morrison Lake.
The Morrison Lake drains via the Morrison River into the north-eastern arm of
the Babine Lake, a 175 kilometers long lake. The Babine Lake drains via the
Babine River, a 100 kilometers long river, which originates at the top of the
north-western arm of Babine Lake, and is a tributary to the Skeena River.
The Project footprint, which is 25 square kilometers represents 0.046% of the of
the Skeena River watershed which is 54,400 square kilometers. The direct
disturbance would be 11.40 square kilometers of which, 7.88 square kilometers
(69%) would be reclaimed and a 1.75 square kilometers pond would be formed in
the Tailings Storage Facility on closure.
The Morrison Copper/Gold Project is located within 30 kilometers of two former
producing mines with histories of safe operation, the Bell and the Granisle
located on Newman Peninsula extending into Babine Lake. The Bell mine operated
from 1972 to 1992, except for the period 1982 to 1984, and closed in 1992. The
Granisle mine operated from 1966 to 1982.
A Google image of the location of the historical mines on Babine Lake is
available at the following link: http://www.pacificbooker.com/pdf/Historical%20Mines%20on%20Babine%20Lake.pdf.
Please copy and paste this link in your internet browser if you experience any
difficulties with it.
Upon closure, both mines were put in care and maintenance performed by Xstrata
Copper Canada. Water management and monitoring is ongoing at the mine sites to
ensure that water quality in Babine Lake remains protected. Both mines are in
compliance with Permits issued by the BC Ministry of Environment.
Exploration activities have commenced at the Bell and Granisle mines with
scoping studies into the potential development of the former mines.
Sockeye salmon returns to Babine Lake as counted at the Babine River fence is an
average of approximately 1.3 million per year. The returns to Morrison
River/Lake are approximately 13,000 per year. Approximately 50% of those sockeye
salmon continue to and spawn in the lower and upper portion of Tahlo Creek.
Tahlo Creek is at the northern end of Morrison Lake. Approximately 6,500 sockeye
remain to spawn in Morrison River/Lake. It should be noted that, as per the
Babine River fence count, the sockeye salmon returns to Babine Lake increased
during the operation of the two former mines.
The count of sockeye salmon returning to the Morrison River/Lake and to the
Babine River fence, operated by the Department of Fisheries since 1946, is
available at the following link: http://www.pacificbooker.com/pdf/Returns%20to%20Babine%20Lake%20and%20River.pdf.
Please copy and paste this link in your internet browser if you experience any
difficulties with it.
A Fish Habitat Compensation Plan was developed, by a qualified Fisheries
Biologist with input from the Department from Fisheries, Ministry of Environment
and First Nations, to compensate for an estimated 1,850 square meters of lost
fish habitat in several ephemeral (intermittent) tributary streams and ponds on
the east side of Morrison Lake. This includes 9 square meters of spawning
habitat for lake trout and Coho salmon.
The Company’s Environmental Assessment concluded that the changes in predicted
Morrison Lake metal concentrations due to the project, using upper bound
loadings, are below BC Water Quality Guidelines and nominally above baseline and
the risk of a significant adverse effect is, therefore, negligible and that the
design is protective of the aquatic environment. The BC Environmental Assessment
Office’s Environmental Assessment Report also concluded that the Morrison
Copper/Gold Project does not have the potential for significant adverse effects.
This was also supported by a BC Environmental Assessment Office’s commissioned
independent 3rd Party review.
If you would like to be added to our email newsgroup, please send your request
by email to info@pacificbooker.com.
On Behalf of the Board of Directors
“Erik Tornquist”
Erik Tornquist, Director
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