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CBC
3 days ago
- Business
- CBC
Mining, energy companies say hydro storage project could be template for N.S. mines
Halifax councillors have heard new details about a proposed hydro energy storage project at a former gold mine in the municipality. Representatives from Australia-based St Barbara Mining and Natural Forces, a Halifax-based renewable energy company, spoke to the Halifax Regional Municipality's environment and sustainability committee on Thursday. The two groups hope to use St Barbara's former Touquoy mining pit in Moose River, N.S., near Middle Musquodoboit for a closed-loop pumped hydro energy storage project. "Quite honestly, the history of mine reclamation of the province of Nova Scotia hasn't always been a great story, and we want to change that," Dustin O'Leary, St Barbara Atlantic spokesperson, said in an interview outside the meeting. Mining operations at Touquoy stopped in 2023, and St Barbara said last year it was conducting a feasibility study with Natural Forces on the hydro storage project. Tess Donahue, project manager with Natural Forces, said the pumped hydro system would be the first of its kind in Nova Scotia and could last between 50 to 100 years. It would use two reservoirs at different elevations, with pipes running between them. The current administrative complex of the Touquoy site would be turned into an upper reservoir, she said, with the former mining pit becoming the lower one. Renewable energy, like from wind farms, would come into the system and be used to pump water from the lower reservoir to the upper one where it would be stored. When that power is needed, the water would be pumped back down to the lower level and generate electricity for the grid. Donahue said the 80-megawatt system could produce energy for about 6.5 hours, resulting in about 513 megawatt hours of electricity. Nova Scotia Power has promised to have 80 per cent of the grid powered by renewable energy like wind, hydro and solar by 2030. Donahue said the utility will need places to store electricity, so the grid can be reliable when winds aren't blowing or the sun isn't shining. "If there was a long period of high demand, then it could support the grid for longer than a battery could," Donahue said. It is considered a closed-loop system because the reservoirs are only connected to each other, Donahue said, and fed solely by rain and groundwater. O'Leary said this would be the first pumped hydro storage system for St Barbara in any of their mines, which operate in various countries. "It doesn't have to just be St Barbara, either, it can be other mines," O'Leary said. "They're all creating a pit that could be used as an area to store power. So it's got a lot of potential." Coun. Sam Austin said the project seems like a good idea because it can be hard to "encourage, sometimes, good behaviour" in mining companies tending to their leftover sites. "If the site continues to actually have an economic rationale for being, I think that probably aligns a lot of interest in the right kind of direction," Austin said during the meeting. The committee voted to ask regional council to request a staff report that would consider sending a letter of support for the project to the province. "It's not a requirement, but I think it's a nice add-on to their work," said Coun. Cathy Deagle Gammon. Ongoing court case Atlantic Mining Nova Scotia, the St Barbara subsidiary that ran the mine, is in a legal fight with the province over the terms and conditions for the remediation of the Touquoy site. The Supreme Court of Nova Scotia is currently hearing the case, with the next date set for November. The Ecology Action Centre and Mining Association of Nova Scotia are intervenors in the matter. The court case doesn't change St Barbara's intention to reclaim the site and return it to a natural state as required, O'Leary said. He said the company has spent $10 million to date on cleanup costs. O'Leary said they are reviewing the regulations around the hydro storage project, and plan to start environmental studies soon. Their team hopes to get provincial approval to begin within the next few years, O'Leary said.
CTV News
12-05-2025
- Business
- CTV News
Majority of Nova Scotians support mining, quarrying industry: survey
Excavators work at an open pit gold mine in Moose River Gold Mines, N.S., on June 6, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan (Andrew Vaughan/THE CANADIAN PRESS)
