Cleaning up the legacy of abandoned mines
SASKATOON Saskatchewan’s first uranium discovery was staked a century ago, but it took almost three decades before prospectors gave up attempting to extract iron, copper and gold from the site and turned their attention to its last remaining mineral resource.
Named for the former Royal North-west Mounted Police officer who re-staked the site on the north shore of Lake Athabasca in 1929, the Nicholson mine underwent development in 1949 and sent out its first uranium shipments five years later.
Production halted in 1956 after Consolidated Nicholson Mines Ltd.’s supply contract ended in the face of falling prices. Subsequent efforts to resume mining failed and the remote site was abandoned with little cleanup effort a few years later.
“By 1959, the Nicholson ore body had been essentially depleted, however (it) played its role in helping Canada become one of the largest uranium producers in the world,” Laurier Scrhramm and Patty Ogilvie-evans wrote in their 2018 book about the site.
Today, Nicholson is one of more than 30 abandoned mine sites scattered across the Athabasca Basin, the uranium-rich portion of the Canadian Shield that encompasses much of northern Saskatchewan and extends westward into Alberta.
In 2006, the federal and provincial governments signed an agreement to clean up the sites, notably the massive Gunnar mine southwest of Uranium City. While the division of costs is now the subject of a major court battle, work on the sites continues.
This summer, with the remediation of Gunnar entering its final phase (estimated to take three years), Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) crews will begin assessing the Nicholson site, which is among the largest and most remote “satellite” uranium sites.
Besides abandoned structures, machinery and mine works, the site is known to contain 90,000 cubic metres of waste rock.
“We’re in that stage of going in and trying to discern what we’re dealing with and starting to frame the problem,” SRC remediation manager Ian Wilson said of the mine, which apart from shaft closures remained largely untouched since it was abandoned.
“Once we get through that process, we use that information from the assessment stage to start to develop an action plan or a risk management plan,” Wilson said of the site, which is accessible only by boat in summer or an ice road in winter.
The SRC has “substantially completed” work on between 15 and 18 of the satellite sites; the former Lorado mill site, one of the largest abandoned facilities, has been completely remediated and Gunnar, the largest, will be a hive of activity again this summer.
Gunnar is thought to be the single largest environmental reclamation project in Saskatchewan history.
Wilson said he expects the entire project will be complete in another decade or so, a timeline made somewhat variable by the challenges of working in the province’s north, where remoteness and weather can cause all kinds of problems.
“It’s always good, it’s always a weight off your shoulders,” Wilson said of the SRC’S progress so far, adding that the Crown corporation has not lost a single day’s work due to injury since the project began more than a decade ago.
“I’m also pleased with the amount of engagement and capacity-building that we’ve been able to do,” he said, referring to efforts to work with northern communities and employ local people and Indigenous-owned companies.
While work is expected to begin again late this winter, the federal and provincial governments remain divided over which level of government should shoulder the cost of the massively over-budget project, which has swollen to an estimated $280 million.
In 2006, both governments agreed to evenly divide the cost, which at the time was estimated at $24.6 million. Last year, Saskatchewan filed a lawsuit with the aim of getting a judge to force Ottawa to pay more than its original $12.3-million share.
No court date has been set for the hearing.