Giant Mine remediation project ...

• Main Author: Wells, C.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: The University of British Columbia 2016
• Subjects: Northwest Territories; Yellowknife
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0305899; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0305899

Following the discovery of gold in the Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada, area in the 1930s, Giant Mine officially opened in 1948. Gold at Giant Mine was found locked in minerals, which needed to be roasted at extremely high temperatures. Unfortunately, this roasting process also released gases with a highly toxic by-product, arsenic trioxide. Throughout the 1950s, controls were put in place that minimised emissions to the air; however, this also resulted in the collection of 237,000 tonnes of highly toxic arsenic trioxide dust. At the time, scientists and government agencies agreed that storing the waste in underground stopes and chambers was an appropriate long-term management alternative. When ore processing ceased in 1999, the care and control of the mine fell to the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, and attention was focused on the environmental issues left behind, including the arsenic trioxide stored in underground chambers. The Giant Mine remediation project ...