On March 30, Riversdale Resources updated council on the Grassy Mountain Coal Mine project.

In November Benga Mining, a subsidiary of Riversdale Resources, filed their application for provincial and federal approval of the Grassy Mountain project. The application package included an environmental impact assessment.

On Jan. 25, the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) informed Riversdale Resources that their impact assessment was incomplete and that the review process had been paused until the deficiencies identified had been addressed.

The AER outlined 24 areas where the impact assessment fell short. In some cases terms used in the EIA were unclear or incomplete. In other cases the AER said there wasn’t enough information.

At the meeting on March 30, Cal Clark, Riversdale’s manager of Sustainable Development, told council the company was gathering the information requested by the AER. Clark said the application would be resubmitted in June as part of a comprehensive package that would include a mine license application, a Public Lands Act application, a Water Act application and others related to the Coal Conservation Act.

“We’re looking to get that additional information,” he said. “That will all be filed probably in June as part of an EIA update.”

Last week Riversdale canceled several Grassy Mountain Project information sessions in Pincher Creek, Blairmore and Sparwood B.C.

In a release, community liaison Keith Bott said Benga was waiting on the AER to decide whether to hold a joint provincial/federal hearing for the proposed coal mine.

“Once a decision is made, Riversdale Resources will reschedule the information sessions to describe the joint panel review process,” said the release.