A Kamloops city councillor says the city may have to change its plan for growth in Aberdeen if the proposal for the Ajax Mine resurfaces.

Speaking on NL Newsday, Dennis Walsh says council will have to have a conversation about whether to proceed as if the mine will still not be going ahead – this after a statement from the minority owner of Ajax, Abacus Mining, that the project could still happen.

“Highland Valley, New Gold, I mean we’re a hub basically for mining companies. So I don’t believe anybody on council is against mining, it’s just that this is such a strange project. It’s the first urban mine that’s been presented in B.C., and it just so happens to be a kilometre-and-a-half or whatever it is from our border,” Walsh says, adding “I can’t see how it can’t affect our city in a negative way.”

KamPlan, the city’s official community plan, calls for the majority of growth in Kamloops in the next 20 years to happen in the city’s southwest sector, the closest area of the city to the Ajax Mine property.

And Walsh says the Mining Act doesn’t allow municipal governments to ultimately decide on a project like this.

“As far as I know it was written in 1896, so at least over 100 years old, and there was no such thing as an urban mine then. We wanted to get permission for cities to be able to OK a mine that’s, say, within 5 kilometres… But right now we’re not.”

Walsh also says he thinks the opinion of the Stk’emlupsemc te Secwepemc Nation, comprised of the Tk’emlúps te Secwepemc and Skeetchestn Indian Band, weighed heavily in the province rejecting the proposed Ajax Mine in 2017. Skeetchestn Chief Ron Ignace told NL News this week that he plans to stand by his community’s decision on the project.

Abacus has not returned a call for an interview request to NL News.