A112 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, May 26, 1999

New work sought by air freight outfit

A LOCAL company that got its grounding servicing a northwestern mite is hunt- ing for new ventures.

The planned closure of Homestake’s Snip gold mine in the Iskut Valley will leave Hawkair Aviation Ser- vices wilhout its primary source of income.

Founded five years ago, Hawkair began with one air- craft and added another thanks to its Homestake contract to fly in supplies to Snip’s remote localion and to fly out ore concentrate,

But now it’s just flying out concentrate and will soon add mining equipment to ils cargo list as Homestake prepares to shut down the end of this month. It wants to have the mine site cleaned up by summer's end,

*‘Anywhere there’s a road,

MASSIVE CARVAIR freight aircraft dwarfs owners Dave Menzies and Paul Hawkins of Hawkair Aviation Services. The closure of the remote Snip gold mine means it is looking for new work.

you won'l see us,’’ says Paul Hawkins, one of the company’s three managing partners.

Both of the company’s air- craft, a British Bristol and an adapted DC-4 called a Carvair, foad and unload through cargo doors on their noses, making them unique aircraft for their carrying ca- pacity.

Hawkins and Dave Men- gies, another managing part- ner, doubt there’s another company in western Canada with the kind of lift capacity they offer. The Carvair, for instance, has a cargo bay that’s 70 feet long.

So that should place them “in demand for companies which need to fly equipment or supplies to locations where there aren’t roads,

But this also places them at the mercy of the resource industry economy and right now there’s not a lot of ac- tivily.

“We only get used by people who are trying to be industrious in remote areas,”’ said Menzies,

. “IE industry’s not work- ing, neither are we,” os The company “has had ~ short term hauling contracts including flying out equip- ment from a mining show in what is now the Tat-

shenshini park.

Last year it flew diesel fuel into remote northern Manitoba villages cut off from ground transportation because of ice flows.

Mine. closes

AFTER NEARLY 10 years. of operation producing an estimated $450 million in gold, the Snip mine in. northwestem B.C, is clos- ing.

The mine’s ore body has simply rum out, says Garry Biles, from mine owner Homestake Canada,

Homestake is putting $3 million into the cost of shut- ting down the operation, taking out useable equip- ment and restoring the site in the Iskut Valley to as nat- ural state as possible, said Biles.

“That cost includes on- going monitoring over the years,”’ he said,

The workforce has already been cut in half from its peak of 160 people and. inost the remainder will be gone by the end of the month.

But some will be called back to help in dismantling the operation and they’ve also been put on a list for openings at Homestake’s other northwestern gold» mine, Eskay Creek,

‘*We've said they’ ll be on the list for a year from‘ clos« ing,” said Biles, who is also the general manager of the Eskay mine. “‘It’s the least we can do for goad employ- ees who have been with ws

for some years and who are

trained.”

Equipment which can be salvaged will be flown out: to “Wrangell, Alaska. and- barged to Stewart. for: dis- posal,

Some may be used at the Eskay mine and buyers will. be suught for the rest, said: Biles.

And early next month it will be flying fuel in the far north,

At one point, Hawkair employed 20 people. It is now down to 4 core group of 10 as the Snip work winds down and as it looks for new income sources,

One possible source of work could come if the Tul- sequah Chief copper and gold property south of Atlin ever gets developed.

There is enviromental opposition to the project and opposition to constructing a road south from Atlin to the property,

Menzies points out that an

Cena |

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aircraft isn’t as environmen- tally sensitive as a road,

The one real challenge Hawkair faces comes from Navean, a new creation which has taken over the country’s air navigation network from the federal government.

Fees imposcd by Navcan have the potential to eat into Hawkair’s profit margin, making it difficult to bid on projects,

“There’s a fee to use an aimport serviced by a flight

services station run by Nav--

can and sO many cents a kilometre while in the air,” notes Hawkins,

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