Request made for Wabush school
Decision due Wednesday on mining company’s decommissioning plan
The story of Wabush Mines is far from over.
While there has been talk of one or more parties interested in the shuttered iron ore mine site in Labrador West, there is also continuing work towards the site’s decommissioning and rehabilitation.
A decommissioning plan from Cliffs Natural Resources now sits with the province’s minister of Environment, who is set to make a decision of some kind on its contents by Wednesday.
That plan notes 240 properties within the mining town of Wabush the company controlled, including J.R. Smallwood Middle School.
The school is currently being used for the instruction of Grade 4-7 students in the area, by the Newfoundland and Labrador English School District. And the district is interested in its continued use.
“The Newfoundland and Labrador English School District has had some discussions with a representative of Cliffs Natural Resources over the last couple of months,” stated an emailed response to questions from a spokesman for the Department of Education.
“Those discussions have led to the submission of a formal request this week regarding the transfer or acquisition of J.R. Smallwood Middle School in Wabush to the district.”
Apart from the properties, closing the mine would involve heavy deconstruction work, estimated to need just over 130 trades workers over the course of three to five years.
The work includes removal of any remaining mine and mill equipment; removal of about 13,000 railway ties and associated rail line; shut down and demolition of the sewage treatment plant; the piling of leftover ore around mine pits and waste rock to create public barriers; remediation of laydown and former mine landfill areas; a collection of environmental site assessments; and long-term environmental monitoring of water bodies and groundwater.
Over its life, operation of the mine resulted in the creation of 1,110 hectares of tailings surface area. The plan calls for establishing vegetation atop the tailings wherever possible to reduce the spread of dust from the site.
“Revegetation (at the tailings) will continue in 2016 … planned to be completed in 2017,” the company’s documentation notes.
There are other outstanding issues as well, tied to financial concerns, including the claims of Wabush mine pensioners.
TC Media will provide more information as it becomes available.