Northback targets year-end Grassy Mountain filing

Northback Holdings Corporation expects to submit its integrated application for the revised Grassy Mountain coal project to the Alberta Energy Regulator near the end of 2026.

CEO Brad Johnston gave the timeline while presenting the company’s socioeconomic study to Crowsnest Pass council August 25. Johnston said he became Northback’s CEO July 1.

The presentation was for council’s information and did not seek municipal approval of the project.

Johnston said Northback expects the construction phase to take about two to two and a half years. The company plans to build a construction camp, although he said hiring locally would reduce the number of workers who need camp accommodation.

The mine itself would employ an estimated 400 to 425 people, Johnston said. Northback’s study estimates 492 direct full-time-equivalent positions per year in southwest Alberta once contractors who work at or directly support the mine are included.

The study, prepared by Ernst & Young LLP for Northback, estimates the operation would support 876 direct, indirect and induced full-time equivalents per year across the region. Its regional model covers selected census subdivisions across southwest Alberta, not only Crowsnest Pass.

The report also estimates that a $1.4-billion initial investment would support 9,577 full-time-equivalent person-years across Canada during construction, including 4,952 in southwest Alberta.

Over a proposed 26-year operating life, it projects annual support for 1,756 full-time equivalents nationally, including 1,356 in Alberta. The report estimates $8.4 billion in Canadian gross domestic product during operations and about $2.2 billion in federal, provincial and municipal revenue through construction and operations.

Those figures are projections, not employment commitments or realized economic activity. EY says its modelling relied on unaudited financial information supplied by Northback, public data and its own economic model. The report does not assess environmental effects.

Johnston described the work as arm’s length and said Northback supplied data but did not direct EY’s findings.

He told council the mine’s full life cycle could span about 50 years when construction, operations, closure and later monitoring are combined.

Johnston estimated active closure could last 10 to 25 years after mining ends. He said 30 to 50 employees could remain during that phase to carry out reclamation and operate an active water-treatment plant until passive treatment performs as expected.

A smaller team would then continue water testing and other monitoring.

Water quantity and quality studies form part of the backbone of the new application, Johnston said. Recent drilling was intended to improve Northback’s understanding of the water regime within Grassy Mountain rather than assess the amount or quality of coal.

The previous version of the project was rejected by a joint federal-provincial review panel in 2021. The panel found that significant adverse effects on surface water quality and westslope cutthroat trout and its habitat outweighed the project’s positive economic effects.

Johnston acknowledged that the earlier proponent had not adequately addressed water management.

“There was merit to that argument, for sure,” he said.

Northback told the federal government in December 2025 that it would not proceed with the project as proposed in 2015. The government then terminated that earlier environmental assessment. The company is now advancing a smaller revised proposal that it says would produce about 2.5 million tonnes of steelmaking coal annually.

Johnston said Northback expects to engage with federal authorities in areas such as fisheries, but the extent of federal involvement in a future review is not yet clear.

The AER approved Northback’s separate exploration, deep-drilling and temporary water-diversion applications in May 2025. Those approvals did not authorize construction or operation of a mine.

The revised mine proposal remains subject to a new application, regulatory review and future decisions after Northback files the project documents.