“Receipt of application screening comments is typical and not unexpected after a first review,” Compliance CEO John Tapics said.

“The company and its consultants are in the process of reviewing the comments returned by the EAO and plan to provide clarification or additional information and then resubmit the application for further review once the comments have been adequately addressed.”

The 12,000-page proposal was in the screening process and set to enter its final 180-day review period, but was instead rejected with a 114-page evaluation of the mine application because it “did not provide the required information.”

In the review, the BC government said there were hundreds of application deficiencies, including insufficient information about environmental impacts on air quality and drinking water, mitigation of long-term effects from industrial waste and tailings, as well as a lack of consultation with Aboriginal people.

Compliance’s application is undergoing a joint federal and provincial review.

The company has the opportunity to resubmit the application for a second 30-day screening process, following which there is a 180-day public comment period. The two senior levels of government then have 45 days to make a decision.

Environmental groups have fought the application since its initial proposal over two years ago and have welcomed the EAO’s decision.

The Wilderness Committee’s Vancouver Island campaigner Torrance Coste said that the EAO had finally acknowledged the serious gaps in information in the application.

Compliance Energy said on its website that the Raven coal deposit held about 72 million tonnes of measured and indicated coal suitable for the metallurgical and thermal markets.