A Kamloops councillor says more development in Aberdeen would make the proposal for Ajax Mine more challenging if it were to ever resurface.

Denis Walsh was asked if plans for Edinburgh Heights essentially kills the idea of building a mine two kilometres outside of city limits.

Edinburgh would have 1,600 housing units, to be built over many years.

“The way they’re moving up there, further south, closer and closer to the mine boundaries, one would have to think it’s over. But it’s never over until it’s over, because they still have the land. It might just mean they have more concerns.”

Regardless, Walsh says plans at Edinburgh are good news.

“I think this one was well thought out. There’s a commercial node, there’s a park, there’s also a school planned there. And there’s better access over to Highway 5A too, from Aberdeen. I think it’s well planned out. There’s only so many areas of the city left that you can develop to that level anyways.”

Ajax was rejected by the B.C. government in December of 2017, and rejected in the spring of 2018 by the federal government.

But proponents of the mine say the project is not dead, and said last fall it would re-engage stakeholders.