B.C. company wants to open $300M made-in-Canada sand mine to fuel anticipated fracking, LNG boom

CBC.ca May 4, 2025

Proposal comes as province focuses on new developments, igniting worry among climate groups

A fracking well pad is pictured near a home in Pouce Coupe, B.C., near Dawson Creek in 2019. A newer one is now in place in the same location. (Contributed by Kevin McCleary) His home is less than half a kilometre from it.

In the beginning of May 2025, a BC company applied for a permit for a huge project to produce silica sand to be used in hydraulic fracturing, commonly called fracking. The mine north of Prince George BC would supply sand for proposed increased liquefied natural gas production. Fracking is an gas-extracting process that uses huge amounts of water which is then poisoned and unusable, contributes to earthquakes and toxic air pollution, and has been linked to cancer in nearby residents. Yale Climate Connections

Fracking is banned in France, Germany, Ireland, Scotland, parts of the USA, and parts of Australia. But the BC government is fast-tracking projects in the province to ramp up oil & gas production. READ MORE

"Vitreo Minerals' proposed silica sand mine, about 60 kilometres north of the city, near Bear Lake, would produce sand used in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to prop open the fractures that are created during crude oil and natural gas extraction."

This mine proposal and support for increased LNG in Canada goes against what scientists have been telling us for years: fossil fuel exploration, extraction, and use is the largest contributor to climate change and must be halted.

"If it moves forward, sand from the mine would be sold into the Montney oil and gas basin bordering northeast B.C. and Alberta, where industry is anticipating increased demand as the LNG Canada facility comes online in Kitimat, on B.C.'s North Coast, later this year.

That project will take gas shipped by pipeline from near Dawson Creek, B.C. and cool it for storage and export to Asian markets overseas"

Asian and international companies are promoting LNG, which also uses a great deal of BC energy to liquefy for shipping, but many Asian countries want to get off fossil fuels and transition to solar, wind, and other clean energy production. The corporations hope to capitalize on the fossil gas extraction while our world is experiencing ever greater and more frequent climate catastrophes: tornadoes and hurricanes in North America, destructive storms, extreme heat and cold waves, extended droughts and flash floods that take homes, businesses, cars, people, and entire towns away. And the fires that are leveling cities and millions of hectares of live-supporting forests.

"Dr. Melissa Lem, a family physician and president of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, has spoken out against the expansion of the LNG industry, saying that increasing demand for fracking worsens health outcomes by increasing emissions.

"Producing and burning fossil fuels have serious human health implications, especially for those living near fracking and LNG infrastructure," she said in a statement.

"Expanding LNG exports ties B.C. to a volatile, polluting industry [and] will drive up health-care costs, insurance rates and the cost of living while worsening health, air and water quality, and climate impacts."

Yet, our government wants to increase fossil fuel projects as fast as possible. "[O]n Thursday B.C. Infrastructure Minister Bowinn Ma said the province would be introducing new legislation that would speed up major public and private projects, including mines and other natural resource enterprises" and that leaves us wondering how this policy will reduce emissions and keep citizens of BC, Canada, and the planet safe.