The mining company at the center of a controversy over bringing in foreign workers says there is a lot of wrong information out there.
Vice President Environmental & Regulatory Affairs at HD Mining International Ltd. Jody Shimkus says it starts with the number of Chinese mining workers coming to BC to do what is called ‘long wall mining’
“We have an approved LMO for 201 temporary foreign workers and that is for our bulk sample extraction so those workers are approved for up to two year period and that is the only thing that we have approval for. We are in the provincial environmental assessment for an assessment of the full mine project.”
But she admitted they may need more down the road.
“We would have to through a process to aquire any additional temporary foreign workers at this stage should we be successful with our bulk sample and be successful in the environmental assessment office you know we would require approximately 400 to 480 underground workers.”
She also says an ad requiring mandarin for the job was old, and likely an error.
What is true Shimkus says is the shortage of skilled labour.
“This has been well documented by the HR task force and the Mining Association of BC that we are facing an overall shortage in the mining sector you know we have set forward a plan in place that we want to have 100-percent of the skill set transferred over a ten year period absolutely of we can reach that target sooner that would be great.”
The Jobs ministry is investigating claims those Chinese miners were forced to pay thousands of dollars to come to BC to work.
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