The Vancouver Sun reports in its Saturday edition that the official underfunding tally for cleaning up mines increased to $1.273-billion in 2015. The Sun's Gordon Hoekstra writes that the estimate is up from $1.263-billion in 2014 and may continue to increase, according to B.C. Energy and Mines Minister Bill Bennett. B.C. law requires mining companies to post security, for example a bond, to cover the costs of reclamation and any continuing treatment of tailings pond water. In a report last year, Auditor-General Carol Bellringer said the shortfall meant taxpayers could be on the hook if a company could not pay for cleaning up a closed mine. As a result of Ms. Bellringer's recommendation, for the first time, the mine-by-mine details were posted publicly in the chief inspector of mines' annual report. Although Teck's bonding increased from $463-million in 2014 to $525-million in 2015, the estimated reclamation cost for its numerous coal and metal mines increased nearly $200-million to $1.4-billion over the same period. Barrick saw a more than $100-million decrease in its underfunded liability to $107-million in 2015, as it undertook reclamation work on the closed Eskay Creek silver mine in northwest B.C.