Silica sand test project proposed for La Salle, Sanford area

CTV’s Jeff Keele has more on a silica sand company hoping to set up an extraction site in the La Salle area.

Another company wants a chance to pull silica sand from another area of Manitoba.

Silex Resource Corporation is holding an open house meeting in the RM of MacDonald to let people know about their plans. Donovan Toews is a partner with Landmark Planning and Design, who is consulting on the project.

“There’s a lot of silica sand in the entire area from the U.S. border all the way up to the Interlake,” said Toews. “There’s a layer.”

According to a map set to be presented at the open house, Silex has 13 land claims around 40 to 60 acres in size in the La Salle and Sanford area. They want to drill three to four holes to test the silica’s purity.

This would require a borehole license from the province.

“If people can picture a water well rake, comes on a property and then there’s a tall derrick or tower and then you drill down and go all the way down to where the silica is and you bring a sample up,” said Toews.

If the test results are pure enough, an environmental license process would begin for permission to extract silica, which is used for many industries like electronics, construction and glassmaking.

Another, separate project with a different company became highly controversial. Sio Silica is taking a second crack at mining silica sand in the RM of Springfield. The province rejected their application following concerns about the potential impact on the area’s freshwater aquifer.

But in the RM of MacDonald, Toews said the aquifer there is saline.

“Nobody is using this water because it’s so saline, you can’t feed it to your animals, it will kill your plants, and no one is drinking it,” said Toews.

Reeve Brad Erb said he’s been fielding some questions about this project. He said it’s too soon to say whether he and his council will support this or not, or what are the potential impacts or benefits.

“We haven’t even given that any consideration in terms of what is the benefit to the RM,” said Erb. “Let’s really see…the open house first and the test hole.”

The open house is set for Wednesday evening at the Kingswood Golf Course.