Last month, when we alerted you to new threats of logging on Flores Island in the heart of Clayoquot Sound, you responded with more than a thousand letters asking the provincial government to prevent road construction. Now we are asking you to join us to take a stand against another serious threat to Clayoquot Sound.

Please join the Wilderness Committee, the Friends of Clayoquot Sound and activists from the Tahltan, Stolo, Tla-o-qui-aht and Ahousaht First Nations at a noon hour rally outside of Imperial Metals' Annual General Meeting to say NO to a proposed open pit copper mine in Clayoquot Sound.

The rally will be from noon until 1pm on Thursday, May 12 at 550 Burrard St. (at the corner of Burrard and Dunsmuir) in Vancouver. It's across the street from the Burrard Skytrain Station. Just look for a bunch of folks with signs and banners!

Imperial Metals is the owner of several highly controversial copper and gold mining projects including the Catface Mine project, a proposed open pit mine in the heart of Clayoquot Sound in Ahousaht First Nations territory. If a mine on Catface Mountain was to be approved by the BC government it would likely result in a mountain top removal, which would produce a massive amount of waste rock. The risk of acid mine drainage , such as we've already seen in BC at mines like the now closed Britannia Mine along the Sea to Sky highway, would be high - and potentially devastating to marine life throughout Clayoquot Sound. Catface Mountain juts out into the ocean and its shoreline is surrounded by waters full of life.

Other proposed copper/gold mines owned by Imperial include the proposed Red Chris Mine in Tahltan First Nation territory, which Imperial wants to build adjacent to the source of several great salmon river systems, christened by local First Nations as the “Sacred Headwaters” in Northwest BC and the Silver Daisy Mountain mineral claim in Stolo First Nation territory which is surrounded on all sides by Manning Provincial Park and Skagit Valley Provincial Park.

If you are able, please come out and send a message to the shareholders of Imperial Metals, "the days of despoiling special places like Clayoquot are over!" Meet others who are taking a stand for nature.

When we stand together our voices can not be ignored.

Andy Miller | Staff Scientist
Wilderness Committee