The Boreal Below Mining Issues and Activities in Canada’s Boreal Forest Northwatch and MiningWatch Canada May 2008 Foreword The mining sector is a major industrial player and source of long lasting and wide-ranging environmental and social impacts within and beyond the boreal forest region, both now and into the foreseeable future. Mining and mineral exploration leave virtually no part of the vast boreal forest untouched. With few exceptions, the entire forest landscape is subject to mineral exploration, and every major watershed is host to a mining operation. Abandoned mines are scatt ered across the region, the majority of them unatt ended and a great number of them not yet even evaluated for their impacts on the environment. Mines bring with them a full slate of industrial infrastructure – roads, power generators, transmission lines, camps or communities, and related development, paving the way for other resource extraction players, who inevitably follow. This report has been prepared by Northwatch and MiningWatch Canada to provide an overview of mining activities and issues, including an inventory of operating mines and a preliminary cataloguing of closed and abandoned mines and new mineral development activities in Canada’s boreal. The report off ers a survey and general analysis of mining activities and impacts, but falls short of being fully comprehensive, particularly in its cataloguing of mining activity (other than operating mines). This is chiefl y because the time and resources allocated to the task permitt ed only an initial review and inventorying. The report provides a solid and reliable overview, and refers the reader to additional resources and information sources. Acknowledgements The Boreal Below report was fi rst developed in 2001 by MiningWatch Canada with a consortium of researchers and authors, including Northwatch mining campaigners Brennain Lloyd and Catherine Daniel, who assembled the inventory, researched and wrote all sections except those otherwise noted in this introduction, and edited the report into a single document; Colin Chambers and Hugh Benevides, who researched and wrote the section on political and regulatory trends; Henri Jacob, who provided research for the section on Québec; Roch Tasse, who provided translation of portions of the Québec report; Beverly Shiels of the Laurentian University Field Station in Elliot Lake who provided GIS and mapping services; and Joan Kuyek of MiningWatch Canada who provided overall support and editorial comment, as did members of MiningWatch Canada’s board. Reviews of regional sections were generously provided by the Environmental Mining Council of British Columbia, Yukon Conservation Society, the Environmental Law Centre in Edmonton, Saskatchewan Environmental Society, Manitoba Resource Conservation, Northwatch and the Innu Nation. This revised and updated version of the report has been prepared by Northwatch, MiningWatch Canada and associates, contributions from Brennain Lloyd and Catherine Daniel of Northwatch and Joan Kuyek of Mining Watch Canada, with assistance from Jennifer Simard of Mushkegowuk Environmental Research Centre, Anna Tilman, Robert Ratt le of Human Dimensions of Global Change/Sustainable Consumption, and Carrie Slanina of the Centre for Science in Public Participation. Several others contributed comments and assisted by reviewing sections of the report, including Marina Biasutt i-Brown, Ugo Lapointe, Maribelle Provost, Romain Taravella, Larry Innes, David Peerla, Robert Ratt le, Katie Pearson, Bruce McLean, Soha Keen, Lorraine Rekmans, Sharon Gow-Meawisige, Carrie Slanina, Gerry Couture, Jean Langlois, Randy Fleming, Amy Crook, and Kevin O’Reilly. Their time and invaluable contributions are greatly appreciated. Helen Forsey shared her skills as a copy editor and fi nal arbiter of punctuation, for which we are grateful. i Table of Contents Foreword i Acknowledgements i 1.0 Mining the Boreal 1 1.1 An Introduction to Canada’s Boreal as a Mining Region 1 1.2 The Ecology of the Boreal Forest Region 1 1.3 Defi nition and Delineation of the Boreal Forest Ecozones 2 1.4 A Summary of Mining Activity 3 Exploration 3 Operating Mines 3 1.5 An Economic Snapshot 4 1.6 Mining and Natural Capital 5 Biodiversity 5 Climate Change 6 2.0 The Mining Sequence 8 2.1 An Overview of the Mining Sequence 8 2.2 Prospecting 8 Free Entry 9 Staking 13 2.3 Exploration 15 Early Exploration 15 Drilling 16 Bulk Sampling 17 Feasibility Studies 17 Impacts from mineral exploration 18 2.4 Mine Operation 19 Extraction 19 Waste Rock 20 2.5 Processing 21 Milling 21 Tailings 22 Smelting 23 2.6 Mine Closure 24 Closure Plans 25 Financial Assurances 25 The Exit Ticket 26 2.7 Perpetual Care 26 3.0 Mining and the Environment 28 3.1 Impacts on the Land 28 Access to the Land Base 28 Surface Disturbance 31 Contaminated Soil 32 Abandoned Mines 33 3.2 Impacts on Water 35 Acid Mine Drainage and Metal Leaching 35 Polluting Process Agents 37 Mixing Zones: The Solution to Pollution? 39 Sediments 41 Water Consumption 42 ii The Boreal Below: Mining Issues and Activities in Canada’s Boreal Forest 3. 3 Impacts on Air 43 Greenhouse Gases 43 Heavy Metals and Toxics 44 Mitigation 48 4.0 Mining and Society 49 4.1 Mining Communities in the Boreal 49 Social Impacts in Mining-Dependent Communities 50 Aboriginal Community Economics 51 Public Participation Processes 53 4.2 The Governments 55 A Summary of the Federal-Provincial Division of Powers 56 The Federal Government as Regulator 58 Provincial and Territorial Regulation – A Summary 67 Devolution 68 4.3 The Mining Industry 69 Demand and supply 69 Mergers and Acquisitions 71 Junior Mining Companies and the Exploration Boom 72 Canadian Mining Companies Abroad 73 Mining Industry Associations 73 5.0 Aboriginal Peoples and the Mineral Sector 78 5.1 The First Peoples 78 5.2 Issues and Impacts 79 5.3 Rights and Responses 80 5.4 Impact Benefi t Agreements (IBAs) 83 5.5 Environmental Assessments 85 5.6 Taking Action 87 6.0 Across Canada’s Boreal 90 6.1 Newfoundland and Labrador 90 Mining’s History 90 Mining Today 91 Staking and Exploration 91 Production 92 Mining’s Legacy 95 6.2 Québec 96 Introduction 96 Mining’s History 96 Mining Today 97 Staking and Exploration 98 The Mineral Tenure System 98 Production 100 Mining’s Legacy 103 6.3 Ontario 106 Mining’s History 106 Mining Today 106 Staking and Exploration 107 Production 111 Mining’s Legacy 112 Table of Contents iii 6.4 Manitoba 114 Mining’s History 114 Mining Today 114 Staking and Exploration 115 Production 116 Mining’s Legacy 119 6.5 Saskatchewan 120 Mining’s History 120 Mining Today 120 Staking and Exploration 120 Production 121 Mining’s Legacy 123 6.6 Alberta 125 Introduction 125 Mining Today 125 Staking and Exploration 125 Production 126 Mining’s Legacy 127 6.7 British Columbia 128 Mining’s History 128 Mining Today 128 Staking and Exploration 129 Production 132 Mining’s Legacy 135 6.8 Nunavut 137 Introduction 137 Mining Today 137 Staking and Exploration 138 Production 138 Mining’s Legacy 138 6.9 Northwest Territories 141 Mining’s History 141 Mining Today 141 Staking and Exploration 144 Production 145 Mining’s Legacy 149 6.10 The Yukon 151 Mining’s History 151 Mining Today 151 Staking and Exploration 152 Production 154 Mining’s Legacy 155 7.0 Conclusions and recommendations 159 7.1 Context 159 Political and Regulatory Trends 159 Markets and Commodities 161 Public Expectations 161 7.2 A Call for Change 162 Endnotes 165 Glossary 187 Suggested Readings and On-line Resources 192 Mine Listings by Jurisdiction and Category 201 iv The Boreal Below: Mining Issues and Activities in Canada’s Boreal Forest 1.0 Mining the Boreal developed in more remote loca- the boreal forest region. The acid tions. This phenomenon ensures laden mine effl uent and acid laced 1.1 An Introduction to Canada’s that the mining industry will air discharges of the mining indus- Boreal as a Mining Region retain its deserved reputation try overlay the thin and naturally as a frontier-buster, bringing acidic soils of the boreal to stress Canada’s boreal is an immense the roads, power developments these forest ecosystems perhaps northern forest “draped like a and infrastructure with it into beyond recovery. The slow growing green scarf across the shoulders of the last remaining remote or and slow healing taiga is brutalized North America”.1 It comprises 77% semi-remote areas. by earth-stripping activities of the of Canada’s forest land and over diamond and mineral exploration 90% of the country’s remaining Canada’s boreal forest builds soil, industry, where crews move tens large intact forest lands, stretching fi lters water, captures carbon and of thousands of the thin boreal soils in a multi-hued green band from produces oxygen. While diffi cult to each day in the search for prett y the Yukon Territory to southeast monetize the value of such life-giv- gems and minerals. Newfoundland. ing functions, they have been quan- tifi ed as nearly $ 92.8 billion3 worth For the impacts of mining activity Representing 25% of the world’s of environmental services. in Canada’s boreal forest region remaining intact forests, Canada’s to be evaluated, they need to be boreal is host to millions of migrat- Mining, forestry and hydroelec- viewed in the context of the natural ing song birds and some of the tric development are the most sig- characteristics and function of the largest caribou herds in the world, nifi cant industrial activities in the boreal forest. Since a full discussion as well as the large predators that boreal. These activities provide of the boreal forest ecosystem is depend upon them. The region is infrastructure in remote areas and available elsewhere, the following also home to over 600 Aboriginal interact with each other to “open section is intended only to provide communities.