WC136 MayJune 2024 - Magazine - Page 25
It all goes back to the poisoning of the water by the mine itself
during its operation, and ongoing concerns about fish, drinking water,
and the future safety of their territories.
Giant gold mine sits abandoned on the edge of the arctic city of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. Arsenic trioxide, a deadly gas by-product
from the industrial roasting process used to extract gold from raw arsenopyrite ore transforms into water-soluble dust at lower temperatures,
has been blamed for polluting the surrounding environment.
sibility, Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern
Affairs Canada (CIRNAC), today’s equivalent of
DIAND, stands to spend roughly $4.3 billion, four
times the mine’s $1 billion in long-term profits, to
manage pollution that, depending on future advances
in treatment options, could potentially remain at
least partly contained forever in situ.
In 2014, the Mackenzie Valley Environment
Impact Review Board (now the Mackenzie Valley
Review Board) approved a plan to permanently freeze
the underground chambers using passive thermosy-
WAT E R C A N A D A . N E T
phon technology, and in 2020 the Mackenzie Valley
Land and Water Board, issued its endorsement.
Natalie Plato, deputy director with the Giant Mine
Remediation Project at CIRNAC, said the view has
been this represents the best available solution to containing the dust so it can’t reach the groundwater.
Active remediation is currently expected to continue until 2038 and Plato describes the undertaking
as complex, with many interconnected elements, considerable work ahead, and monitoring likely to last
into perpetuity. Plans include reducing contaminated
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