Detour Gold’s Cochrane operations has pleaded guilty to a $62,500 fine for harvesting Crown timber without a license.
This past week an Ontario Court of Justice in Cochrane oversaw the case regarding a December 2014 incident which Detour Gold applied to harvest 159 hectares of Crown forest on their properties north of Cochrane.
A news release from the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry says during a review of the license application they found a portion of the harvested area fell outside the boundaries approved by the environmental assessment.
The MNRF stated Detour was alerted of the issue and that an additional assessment would be needed, but Detour Gold still moved ahead between March and September of 2015 with harvesting 61 hectares without a forest resource license.
In total, the MNRF stated that roughly 3,600 cubic metres of timber was cut down without a license.
The case was heard in court in Cochrane back on October 12th.
