Communities across Canada are affected by gold mining. Here are some facing issues with past, existing or proposed activities.

NORTHWEST TERRITORIES

The Giant gold mine in Yellowknife started production in 1948. The ore was “roasted” to drive off the arsenic it contained, and the arsenic fell in rain and snow, including on the nearby Yellowknives Dene community of Dettah, causing the death of at least one child before filters were installed to capture the arsenic. 237,000 tonnes of arsenic trioxide were stored in underground chambers. If it escapes into nearby Great Slave Lake and the great Mackenzie River, it will kill all animal life. The federal government is spending approximately one billion dollars to freeze and stabilize the arsenic in place, but it will remain a threat – forever. It has been estimated that the mine’s total production was about one billion dollars in today’s money.

BRITISH COLUMBIA

Imperial Metals’ Mount Polley copper-gold mine near Williams Lake was built in 1997. In 2014, its mine waste containment (“tailings pond”) collapsed, sending 24 million cubic metres of sludge into Hazeltine Creek and then into Quesnel Lake, which drains into the mighty Fraser River. Fortunately no-one was killed, but the disaster – Canada’s largest – exposed the dangers of huge mine waste sites and an inadequate regulatory system for all to see.

The proposed Ajax copper-gold mine project on the outskirts of Kamloops was subject to a detailed Indigenous environmental assessment led by the Stk’emlupsemc te Secwepemc Nation (SSN), which announced in March 2017 that it would not give its free, prior, and informed consent to the project based on its expected impacts. It also demanded that Jacko Lake and the Pípsell Cultural and Heritage Area be protected for the benefit of all Canadians and future generations. In August, 2017, the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency also concluded that the project would have irreversible and significant adverse effects on SSN’s heritage and current use of the lands and resources. In an almost unheard-of decision, the provincial government rejected the project in December, 2017, and the federal government eventually followed in June, 2018.

The Red Chris copper-gold mine, near the Tahltan community of Iskut in northwest B.C., has a tailings dam 105 metres high (about the height of a 35-storey building), with a capacity of 305 million metres in the headwaters of the Stikine watershed. MiningWatch had challenged the mine’s environmental assessment  in  court after the project proposal was split into smaller pieces that would avoid a comprehensive study and exclude the public from the assessment process. In 2010 the Supreme Court of Canada decided

in MiningWatch’s favour, but allowed the mine to proceed regardless. Within months, the federal government amended the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act to bypass the judgment.

ONTARIO

Goldcorp’s Campbell gold mine in Balmerton, near Red Lake, has left arsenic-laden tailings in the backyards of Balmerton, an arsenic plume steadily making its way to Red Lake, and 20,000 tons of arsenic trioxide stashed deep in the mine, which has mostly been removed. From 1949 through to 1960, tailings were discharged into Detta Lake and what is now a residential part of Balmerton, leaving it contaminated with arsenic.

QUEBEC

The Malartic gold mine in north-central Quebec is Canada’s largest open-pit gold mine, and it is actually in the town of Malartic. Over two hundred households had to be relocated to make way for

the mine, and residents adjacent to the mine ended up suing the company over damages to their property and health from blasting and dust. They settled out of court in late 2019.

NOVA SCOTIA

Atlantic Gold, which operates the Moose River or Touquoy gold mine near Halifax, is proposing small new mines near Touquoy (the Beaver Dam and Fifteen Mile Stream projects) as well as the large Cochrane Hill gold project in Guysborough County on the St. Mary’s River. This would be a large open pit gold mine less than a kilometre from the St. Mary’s River. The development footprint would also swallow

up the headwaters of McKeen Brook, critical spawning habitat for endangered wild Atlantic salmon. The mine is opposed by many residents who want to protect the river’s ecological, historical, recreational, educational, and economic value.

NATURAL RESOURCES CANADA – MINERALS AND MINING INTERACTIVE MAP

This map depicts the location of Canada’s principal producing mines for the given reference year. You can search for mines and filter results by commodity like “gold” and “precious metals,” as well as by province/territory, owners and more.

Visit the map at: atlas.gc.ca/mins/en/index.html