Critical Elements Lithium obtains Transport Canada dewatering exemption

Critical Elements Lithium announced having obtained an order from the Minister of Transport of Canada exempting the Corporation from the prohibition to dewater navigable waters under the Canadian Navigable Waters Act impacting 28 navigable waters located either on top of or around the perimeter of the future open pit mine site for the Rose Lithium-Tantalum project. Indeed, Subsection 23(1) of the CNWA prohibits taking any action, such as dewatering, that lowers the water level of a navigable water or any part of a navigable water to a level that extinguishes navigation for vessels, unless the Minister of Transport receives an application for an exemption and the Governor in Council is satisfied that it would be in the public interest to permit the dewatering that extinguishes navigation. Following a detailed review and analysis of the Corporation’s request, Transport Canada concluded that it would be in the public interest to permit the dewatering, thereby reducing water levels in the 28 navigable waters and making navigation impracticable. As a result, an exemption was granted to the Corporation pursuant to subsection 24(1) of the CNWA. As mentioned in the Order, despite the dewatering, mitigation measures relevant to navigation have been implemented to assist in safeguarding Indigenous trapping rights, such as relocation of a camp used for trapping and a beaver management plan. Furthermore, navigation is not the main means of transportation to access the territory. Access to the territory can and is being achieved by additional methods such as snowmobiles, all-terrain vehicles and/or snowshoes/foot. Second, the anticipated creation of 580 jobs from the mining project in an area with a population of only 760 people is expected to be a significant benefit to the local economy. Finally, the Order mentions that the mining project itself would help facilitate obtaining the raw materials needed in the manufacture of the essential parts of zero-emission vehicles, thereby contributing to ZEV availability to improve air quality.