A local environmental group has accused the Selinger government of allowing a mining company to start construction of a tailings pond before a decision has been made to issue the company an environmental licence for the project.

The Wilderness Committee said San Gold Corporation started work on the tailings pond near Bissett before the public consultation period for the environmental license began.

"It is reasonable to think that if a government is asking for input on a project license, they won’t start building under after the comments are collected and a license issued," said Eric Reder, campaign director of the Wilderness Committee, said.

San Gold had applied for a licence to build a new tailings ponds to hold toxic mine wastewater from their gold mine. The proposed tailings pond will drain into a tributary of the Wanipigow River, about 45 kilometres upstream from Lake Winnipeg.

A 30-day public comment period on the proposal ended May 24 and a decision on whether to issue a license is expected within the next few months.

Reder said a research expedition to the site of the proposed pond found on June 7 found that work on the project had already been started, with a huge area of forest around the site razed.

Reder said that San Gold would not have begun the work without the consent of government officials.

"The proposed tailings pond is two kilometres outside of Bissett," Reder said. "There is a conservation office in Bissett. This is a massive section that has been razed. Someone must have known."

Reder said the extent of the destruction is so vast and so old, the work had to have begun in the winter, even before the public consultation period began.

"There are no fresh tracks in the ground," Reder said. "The branches and tree stumps have been dead for months."

San Gold could not be reached for comment this morning.

A provincial government spokesman said the allegation is being investigated.