Environment Concerns

Mining is well known to have significant negative impact on the environment. At Devlin's Bench Mining Ltd we are aware of this problem and we take every step possible to minimize the impact. We are proud of our mercury free gold recovery process and we welcome any comments or visits from Government Agencies such as Ministry of Environment and Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
Because of our high environmental standards, Devlin's Bench is regularly shown to visitors and tourists as an environment friendly mine site. (See White Gold mine tours Wells, BC http://www.whitegold.ca/, go to gold tours.)


The Ministry of Mines and the Ministry of Environment have strict regulations to protect British Columbia’s Environment. Devlin's Bench follows these regulations closely. Because the mine operations is located beside a fragile wetland and on the way to the well known Bowron Lake Provincial Park, we must ensure our activities will not permanently affect our surrounding. Beaver, muskrats and even moose frequent the riparian zone 10 meters from our mine site. These animals have become totally accustomed to our presence, they are not scared by our machines, only when we walk towards them do they dive or run. We have a small female moose that has been living below our watchmans trailer for the entire 2009 season.

Noise is another issue that we are trying hard to combat, all of the generators like the 2007 John Deere are in silent enclosures, mufflers are the newest and best quality on all of our machines.

The one problem we are having trouble with is the constant banging of the larger rocks in our large steel scrubber drums as they rotate the gravels around and around for the washing process. This turning motion is needed to break up the gravels and clay balls that are so commonly found in the gold bearing gravels.

Our only answer so far was to close down the night shift at 11:00pm and not start at 6 am as we did in August.This at least gives the campgrounds and surrounding residents a break during the evening hours.

At Devlins, we are striving to fix this problem and are looking into rubber wear plates and other methods inside these drums to silence our operation a little more.

Fuel and all other hydrocarbons are used under strict regulations. All oils taken on the site are used (ie engine oils), then returned to Petro Can recycling depot in Quesnel. Proper precautions are undertaken to insure there is absolutely no water or ground contamination with spill kits at every gen set fueling station.
Large 8d and 4d size equipment batteries are used in our machines, sometimes they do fail and when replaced the old units are all returned for recycling in Quesnel

Double walls fuel tank with spill kit

Streams and wetlands surround the mine operations, riparian buffers are left untouched to protect those fragile ecosystems. Only small portable water pumps are used in the 10 metres riparian buffer zone. These pumps are being replaced with electric submersible units so as to reduce the noise and exhaust for the beaver and moose occupying the water way beside the mine. When this update is complete we will have only an electrical cord and a hum from the pump motor. All pumps are surrounded by fishery spec screens so not to disturb any juvenile fish in the water way.

Green strip is the riparian zone, note the brown swamp water from all the algae bloom and beaver feces and water fowl presence

The mine recirculates his water in the first settling pond. This significantly reduces the amount of water with elevated level of suspended sediments that needs to be treated. Most of the sediments sink to the bottom of this settling pond and do not even reach the second settling pond.


Water seeps through the ground from the first settling pond to the second settling pond. The second settling pond is necessary to make sure the water quality is equal or better than the water above the mine when it returns to the natural surrounding drainage.

Clear water pond at mine outflow

The water seeps through the ground again, which acts as a filter for sediment, from the second settling pond back into the natural water drainage below the mine. Water testing are made regularly and show perfect water quality. Some of the workers at the mine fill their water bottles at the mine discharge. The water entering the mine is highly affected by beaver and algae from above the mine, which make the water undrinkable, our natural filtering system seem to purified the water to a degree that is drinkable.

Water run off from the mine as seen throughout the 2009 season

Water is tested regulary by Julie Cossette, Cariboo enviromental services for oxygen and ph levels, temperature and suspended sediment levels.

The Devlin's Bench Mine property have been developed for over 150 years. Because mining regulations were almost nonexistent in those earlier days, the current operator is cleaning old equipment and building that were left on site.

Old 1952 Dragline removed from mine site

We are aware of the scar on the land we are creating at the moment, we have a GIC saving account of $10,000 which has the Ministry of Mines hold back to insure that the property is reclaims properly. Most mine operators mine very far away from their home, but in Devlin's case the owner lives less than one kilometer from the mine and is conscious of the land appearance. Wright's home overlooks the valley of Williams creek.

We plan on returning the land to a natural state with self sustaining vegetation, with a combination of grass and planted trees, native to this area. We at Devlin's ltd are striving to be the most enviromentally aware operation in the Placer mining industry. The site currently has an additional $10,000 bond to reclaim the site. Discussions with ministry of mines have concluded that before the start of the 2010 season an additional $10,000 bond should be placed in a GIC account for the remediation of this site.

We are all in agreemnet that any placer production in this Valley must take enviroment concerns as a top priority because of the high tourist flow through our area.

after a couple of meetings with Calib Higgins of the BC Parks Forest Rose campground 200 meters from our mine site we have established a working relationship in which he is taking his customers and informing of our Devlin's search for gold and the long history of this area. Any campers seem to be more interested in our quest than the noise that we are producing washing the rocks.

As manager and owner of Devlins Mine I hope we can work together with the local tourist bussiness's to benefit the valley and its commerce (ie whitegold mine tours). This is a remote and economically depressed area and any form of entertainment for its visitors will be a benefit. The reason people are drawn to Barkerville is for it's gold history, this modern mining is the final chapter!!We at Devlins are keeping all the old artifacts found in the area, hoping to one day in the near future build a small cabin to house these old tools and machines from our diggings.

We hope to work together with the Barkerville curratorial staff to have these artifacts properly housed and recorded.

What better than a working gold mine on one of the oldest historic creeks in the cariboo goldfields, Thank you for reading our site any questions or concerns regarding this operation should be directed to wrightcontractingltd@gmail.com, Regards Peter Wright