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Giant Mine History Backgrounder

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Giant Mine History Backgrounder A Brief History of Giant Mine Giant Mine History Special points of interest: The Origins of Giant Mine The origins of Giant Mine In 1934 Johnny Baker staked the first gold claims at Burwash Landing, across the bay from the present Giant Mine and the Yellowknives Dene site of the City of Yellowknife, where a very small gold mine lasted until 1936. News of the find at Bur- Gold mining and arse- wash resulted in more miners and prospectors com- nic ing to the area, eventually resulting in the establish- The 1970s Health ment of large mines such as Con (1938) and Negus Controversy (1939), and the founding of the town of Yellowknife. Giant Mine was slower to come on stream. In Toward the frozen block method 1935 Baker discovered gold bearing rock at the pre- sent-day site but a commercial ore body was not found until 1944. The mine finally opened in 1948 and remained in operation until 2004, a fairly long life for a mining operation. The mine had many owners: Giant Yel- lowknife Mines, Ltd., (a subsidiary of Falconbridge – Headframe at Giant Mine (J. Sandlos) 1948-86), Pamour (1986-1990), Royal Oak Mines (1990- 1999) and Miramar (1999-2004). Giant Mine generated a lot of wealth: over 7 million ounces of gold worth (just over $2.7 billion in 2002 dollars. While much of wealth flowed out of the Northwest Territories, the mine provided jobs and property taxes to support Yellowknife, a cornerstone of growth for the city for over half a century. Giant Mine and the Yellowknives Dene The impact of the mine was much more hunting and trapping, though they were adverse for the Yellowknives Dene First somewhat distant from major fur trading Nation (YKDFN). Although today most centres such as Fort Resolution. Although Yellowknives Dene live in Dettah and there had been contact with European Ndilo, prior to the mining era they lived in traders and explorers dating back to smaller settlements surrounding Yellow- Franklin in the early 19th century, it was knife Bay, often moving seasonally to take only with the advent of mining that sub- advantage of fish runs or caribou migra- stantial numbers of non-Native Canadians tion. The Yellowknives subsisted through entered the Yellowknife Bay area. Page 2 Giant Mine and the Yellowknives Dene Cont’d Many YKDFN elders have recounted from their community, Liza Crook- that the prospecting rush of the 1930s edhand, who showed early prospectors brought large numbers of outsiders to where to find the gold. For this, Crook- their traditional territory for the first edhand was given a new stovepipe. In time. To some the sound of blasting was addition to the lack of jobs and monetary disconcerting, and they asked the pro- benefits, the Yellowknives also remember spectors to leave. Although some Yel- that the development of Giant Mine and lowknives found work in the mines, or the city of Yellowknife impacted one of made money selling firewood to the new their best hunting, fishing, and berrying mining camps, Native employment at the areas. The Baker Creek Valley in particu- Yellowknife gold mines always remained lar, was rich in blueberries and the river Akaitcho Headframe, small. To highlight the lack of economic full of fish, food sources that are either Giant Mine (J. Sandlos) benefits from the mines, many Yellow- gone or cannot be accessed because of knives recall that it was and old woman the mine. Gold Mining and Arsenic The effects of arsenic pollution from Giant in Yellowknife, meltwater became more Mine were severe. Almost all of the gold polluted. In spring the flush of a winter’s ore at Giant Mine was contained in arse- worth of arsenic loading in melting snow nopyrite formations, which meant it had caused arsenic spikes in local water to be roasted at high temperatures to sep- sources. In April 1951, the local Indian “One byproduct arate the gold from the surrounding rock. Agent reported widespread sickness due One byproduct of ore roasting was arse- to arsenic poisoning on Latham Island. of ore roasting nic trioxide dust (the most toxic form of Tragically, one small child died due to was arsenic arsenic, which billowed up from the acute arsenic poisoning; the family re- roaster stack at Giant beginning in 1949). ceived $750 in compensation. The Yellow- trioxide dust” Arsenic also entered the water as it knives have recounted other deaths of seeped out of tailings ponds and waste elders and children due to arsenic expo- rock piles on the surface areas of the sure at various points in the long history mine. Although Con Mine did contribute of Giant Mine. to the arsenic problem beginning in 1948, The mining company and the federal the lion’s share of the pollution came from government responded to the crisis in Giant Mine. One report estimates that several ways: posting warning signs in Giant Mine produced 16,500 lbs. of the lakes, conducting a health study in the ear- 22,000 lbs. of arsenic that were being sent ly 1950s, and installing pollution control into the local atmosphere every day in the equipment, a Cottrell Electrostatic Precipi- late 1940s. tator (ESP), in October 1951 to capture Although the arsenic pollution would the arsenic dust as it went up the smoke- have posed risks to everyone in Yellow- stack. The Cottrell ESP only captured just knife, the Dene living on Latham Island— over half the arsenic dust, so approximate- present day Ndilo—were particularly vul- ly 7000 lbs. of arsenic trioxide escaped nerable. Not only did their community sit into the local environment each day be- directly across the bay from the roaster tween 1954 and 1958. Only with the in- stack and prevailing winds placed them stallation of a second ESP and a baghouse Giant Mine Head- directly in the path of the arsenic fallout, (really just a big bag meant to filter arsenic frame (J. Sandlos) they also relied on local lakes, streams, out of the air) did arsenic emissions fall and snow in winter for drinking water. As more significantly to 795 lbs. per day in arsenic accumulated in the snow through 1959. the long periods of sub-zero temperatures Giant Mine History Page 3 The 1970s Health Controversy The emission reductions were not enough to quell University of Toronto conducted their own study of the public health controversy that emerged in the the Latham Island population (many people today mid-1970s. In 1975 the CBC radio program As it remember having hair samples taken when they Happens produced a lengthy story for the national were small children) that concluded arsenic levels network suggesting that a federal study linking arse- were quite high in Dene children. The federal gov- nic exposure in Yellowknife to cancer had been sup- ernment responded to the new controversy, farming pressed. The story also highlighted the fact that out a new study to the independent Canadian Public many Yellowknives Dene drew water from Back Bay, Health Association, which concluded again in 1977 where a tailings spill had occurred in 1974 and arse- that high arsenic exposure was confined to those nic levels sometimes exceeded drinking water stand- who worked in arsenic hot spots at Giant Mine. ards at that time. Charges of a government coverup While this study did quell the arsenic controversy, emerged in the media (this was the Watergate era) today we know that long term exposure to even and the federal government quickly released the very small amounts of arsenic, especially in drinking once missing public health study and initiated new water, can result in various cancers (skin, liver and studies on arsenic levels in the local population. In bladder) and skin conditions (black spots on or hard- 1975 the federal government’s Department of ening of skin), while airborne exposure causes lung Health concluded that arsenic levels were safe in the cancer. However, it can take decades for these con- Yellowknife area, though Giant Mine workers in the ditions to appear, making it almost impossible to an- baghouse were exposed to high levels in the air. In alyze the full impact of long term arsenic trioxide response, the National Indian Brotherhood, United exposure on the Yellowknife population. Steelworks of America, and researchers from the Toward the Frozen Block Method “The frozen Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, con- proposal was controversial, because it block… meant cern began to mount over the large meant that the underground arsenic that the amount of arsenic stored underground at would stay in place forever; maintenance Giant Mine. In 1999, Royal Oak Mines, of the site (pumping water, replacing underground the owner of Giant Mine, went bankrupt. thermosyphons, etc.) would be required arsenic would stay Another company, Miramar, quickly took for all time. Critics suggested it was un- in place forever” over management of the site (with no likely that the site could be cared for responsibility for the arsenic), and the over thousands and thousands of years. mine closed for good in 2004. The huge At the end of a six year environmental environmental liabilities associated with assessment (2009-14), the Mackenzie Val- arsenic became the responsibility of the ley Environmental Review Board recom- federal government. The federal and ter- mended that the project timeframe be ritorial governments conducted the first reduced from forever to 100 years, with studies of what to do with all this poison active research into new technologies beginning in 1997, with proposals ranging that might permanently remove arsenic from shipping it out of the NWT to use from the site. It is far from certain if new Thermosyphons at Giant as wood preservative to encasing it un- techniques can be developed to effective- Mine (passive heat ex- derground in cement.
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