Skip to content

Local businesses oppose park

The mining community argued against the proposal along with HNZ Helicopters, who are not comfortable with a national park being created.

 

The South Okanagan Chamber of Commerce reported last month that President, Holly Plante and CEO, Bonnie Dancey, just returned from the BC Chamber AGM held in Nanaimo.

During a policy session, where members propose, support or defeat policies relevant to the province’s business community, the South Okanagan Chamber proposed two policies:

- “Development Permit Timelines” offering solutions to developers and the red tape they must go through before the start of any development. This policy passed unanimously.

- The  Chamber’s “Establishing a South Okanagan Similkameen National Park” proposal did not pass the resolution process.

The mining community argued against the proposal along with Penticton Chamber Director, Jason Cox who argued that HNZ Helicopters is not comfortable with a national park being created.

Also last week, as the SOCC argued for support of a national park in the South Okanagan - Similkameen, resource company Hi Ho Silver Resources announced plans for completion of a surface trenching and bulk sampling of the Silver Crown Deposit, which is within the company’s Fairview Gold Property in the hills west of Oliver. Hi Ho Silver Resources is proposing a surface trenching and 1,000 tonne surface bulk sample program.

The company’s 2013 exploration program will include surface trenching, geologic mapping, rock geochemical sampling and the collection of a 1,000 tonne bulk sample from gold-silver bearing quartz veins at the Silver Crown Deposit

An initial resource estimate for the Silver Crown Deposit was recently announced,  comprising an inferred mineral resource of 334,000 tonnes averaging 2.9 grams-per-tonne (“g/t”) gold (Au) and 17.9 g/t silver (Ag), for a total of 32,000 ounces (oz) Au and 192,000 oz Ag (at a gold block cut-off grade of 1.0 g/t).

The South Okanagan Chamber of Commerce remains committed to supporting the park initiative, along with other partners like TOTA, and the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce.