Western Copper Corp. faced hard questions Thursday from the Yukon Water Board, which has to decide whether to grant a licence to the company's controversial mine proposal.
The water board is the final regulatory stop for Western Copper, which wants to build an acid heap leach mine 38 kilometres northwest of Carmacks.
The Vancouver-based company's plan involves a heap leach process, in which thousands of tonnes of copper ore would be piled on top of a rubber liner, then soaked with sulphuric acid to leach nearly pure copper out of the ore.
But throughout the Yukon Water Board hearings this week in Whitehorse, Western Copper executives were grilled by First Nations and other critics who do not trust the company's heap leach process, which they say is untested and could harm the Yukon River ecosystem.
Should the water board approve the Carmacks Copper mine proposal, it will issue a water licence that will dictate how the mine can use water, as well as how wastewater will be treated.
