Vol.35 No.1 | 2016 Published by the Wilderness Committee FREE REPORT Joe Foy The Quesnel Lake watershed risks and health impacts from BC's National Campaign have been looking at reducing the Director, supports an important component mining industry. pressure on mine dams. That sounds Wilderness Committee of the Fraser River sockeye salmon Tailings storage facilities like the like good news – but it isn’t. There @JoeFoyWild run. Fisheries managers are holding one at Mount Polley have become is now an increase in schemes that their breath, waiting to see what long- widespread throughout the province. involve dumping mine wastewater term impacts BC now has 98 into downstream rivers, lakes and the Mount Polley permitted tailings creeks, which are often important hen the tailings pond dam disaster will have ponds at 60 operating salmon habitat. Wbreached at BC's Mount Polley on the run. and closed mines.5 For example, the Gibraltar Mine, Mine in August 2014, it unleashed First Nation Many of them are the located near Williams Lake, was a torrent of mine waste and water. community size of a lake – multiple recently issued a temporary permit Much of this ended up pouring into members who kilometres across. to increase the release of mine one of the province's most important fish for salmon At the Highland tailings pond water up to 5.4 million salmon nurseries – Quesnel Lake. downstream Valley Copper mine cubic metres a year directly into the An estimated 8 million cubic of the spill are located between Logan Fraser River.7 metres of solid mine tailings concerned about Lake and Ashcroft, the And even at the now-reopened (enough to fill well over a half potential health impacts on the tailings pond is almost 10 kilometres Mount Polley Mine, a temporary million 25-tonne dump trucks) salmon, as well as on the people who in length, with a massive earthen dam permit has been issued to release were mixed in with the slurry that eat them.4 at either end.6 It sits perched above treated mine effluent into Quesnel spewed into the lake.1 Not surprisingly, the Mount Polley the Thompson River, a major tributary Lake – at a rate that could fill an Materials that make up Mount Mine disaster – the largest of its kind of the Fraser River and an important Olympic swimming pool in about Polley mine waste include arsenic, in Canadian history – has unleashed a salmon habitat in its own right. 2.5 hours.8 cobalt, copper, lead, manganese, torrent of widespread public concern Out of concern for the danger of Many now believe that the mercury, nickel, phosphorous and about the increasing environmental another mine dam bursting, managers province has reached an emergency vanadium.2 situation. At stake are the The cost to mine owner health and well being of the Imperial Metals to date has region's people and world been substantial – $70 million famous salmon runs. in rehabilitation, as well as a Read on to find out how year of lost production and we can work together to a huge drop in the stock clean up BC's dirty mining market following news of the industry. collapse.3 But not all losses Photo top: Highland Valley can be added up in dollars. Copper Mine west of Kamloops, Photos left to right: Hazeltine Creek, post-Mount Polley mine spill (ClayoquotAction.org), wild sockeye salmon (Dale Sanders). BC (Jeremy Sean Williams). odern open-pit mining The best way to prevent acid mine lot of things in modern society The reason for this is that tailings Minvolves the excavation of large drainage is to keep the potentially A are getting safer. From seatbelts dams are getting bigger – standing amounts of waste rock in order to acid-producing material from mixing and airbags in cars to safer aircraft taller than previous dams and holding extract the desired mineral ore, such with open air. Once air hits this type design and safer home appliances, back a larger amount of tailings as copper or gold. The ore is then of rock and the reactions begin, disaster rates are going down with mixed with water. crushed into finely ground tailings for acid mine drainage is very difficult each passing year. The average cost of each tailings processing, using various chemicals, and expensive to mitigate. Affected Sadly, that’s not the case when dam that fails is now well over $500 water and separating processes to communities are faced with the it comes to mine tailings dams. In million. extract the final product. long-term, high cost of treating mine fact, just the opposite is occurring – Mining companies often cannot In Canada, the average grades of drainage water, effluent discharge and large mine dams are getting more afford, or cannot get insurance mined copper are under one per the disposal of treatment sludge – all accident prone. to cover the costs of tailings dam cent. This means that for every tonne of it harmful to fish. A recent report has shown that the failures. As a result, the economic of copper extracted, over 99 tonnes The least expensive strategy for rate of serious tailings dam failures is and ecological impacts could be of waste material (made up of finely preventing acid mine drainage is to increasing. Half of serious tailings dam permanent and non-recoverable, or ground and often toxic "tailings") submerge the waste rock or tailings failures in the last 70 years occurred in the recovery – if ever possible – is must also be removed. under water in a tailings “lake” held the 20 years between 1990 and 2009. funded by taxpayers.10 Waste material from a mine may back by dams, to prevent exposure to contain acid-producing sulphides, oxygen and to provide water for mine heavy metals or other contaminants. operations. This strategy for avoiding Therefore, after it is removed it must acid drainage depends on keeping be properly stored to avoid polluting the water cover and dam structures the surrounding environment. This intact…forever.9 waste material, and the exposed As major mine dam failures become bedrock walls from which it is more common worldwide, people excavated, is the source of most of are seeing these massive structures the heavy metals pollution caused by as accidents waiting to happen. mining in BC. In BC, there is an increased call for If improperly secured, mine waste the industry to clean up its act and contaminants can leach out into store mine waste using much less surface and groundwater causing water, which reduces the risk of a serious pollution that can last for catastrophic failure or leakage of generations. harmful materials. Atlin r e iv Liard R T aku Ri ver Fort Dease Nelson Lake r ive e R Significant BC Metal Mines ikin St Red Chris Mine Status r r e e v v i i Operating R R y a ut l Under Construction k n s i Briti I F sh Care & Maintenance (temporarily closed) Columbia Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell (KSM) M Closed ine Fort St Photo: Gibraltar Copper-Molybdenum Mine tailings pond John (Jeremy Sean Williams). Proposed - Permitting / Environmental Assessment Stewart Williston Peace River Exploration Lake r e iv Dawson Rejected R ss r Creek a ve N Ri Smit a hers Prince een Rupert Sk Terrace Kitimat Prince George o River ak 0 100 200 km ch e N Mt Robso Photo: Grizzly bear, Chilko Lake n (Joe Foy). Quesnel Gibraltar Mine Mt Polley Mine Williams Lake New F r r Prosper e ity a Golden Mine s iv e R C r o l um n o s mp bi R ho a i T v Kamloops R e iv Lillooet r e Ajax r Campbell Mine River Powell Highland Mt W River Valley ashington Mine Copper Mine Britannia R Mine Kelowna ay ten oo Nelson Cranbrook Vancouver K Catface Fandora Chilliw Mine Mine ack Photo: Highland Valley Copper Mine tailings pond (Jeremy Sean Williams). Victoria examples of mine disasters and tailings dam nfortunately, there are many The company began a small open- cid mine drainage occurs when breaches that have had devastating effects on communities and watersheds pit copper mine near the Tsolum U sulphur-bearing ore is exposed around the world. Here are just a handful of the major mine dam failures that have A River, which it ran for just three years. occurred in recent years: to air and water. The resulting acidic Mining ended completely in 1966. water then leaches toxic heavy metals November 5, 2015 – Samarco Iron Mine, Brazil Copper began to leach but wasn’t When two dams holding mine waste collapsed, over 60 million cubic metres of such as copper, zinc, cadmium and discovered until 1985, and by 2000 other minerals from the ore. If not water, tailings, iron and other waste materials poured into the Rio Doce River and the Tsolum River was declared dead. down to the Atlantic Ocean, more than 500 km away. The disaster buried the small captured and treated, such discharges The fisheries had declined by up to can be extremely toxic to fish and historic town of Bento Rodrigues under mud. At least 11 people died and more than 14 90 per cent. 600 were displaced. The water supply of17 more than 250,000 people along the river other aquatic life. The cause? Acid mine drainage For instance, an increase in copper was interrupted due to contamination. from the long-gone company's August 5, 2015 – Gold King Mine, USA of as little as two to eight parts per abandoned mine. BC taxpayers billion above natural stream levels Over 11,350 cubic metres of acid mine water began spilling from this abandoned pumped $4.5 million into the mine in Colorado, after a cleanup crew supervised by the US Environmental impairs a salmon’s ability to smell, desperate fight to bring the Tsolum which makes it harder to avoid Protection Agency accidentally caused a breach in a mine portal.