Giant Mine

{{Short description|Defunct gold mine in Northwest Territories, Canada (1948–2004)}}

{{Infobox mine

| name = Giant Mine

| image = Giant Mine.jpg

| width = 300px

| caption = Giant Mine

| pushpin_map = Canada

| pushpin_label = Giant Mine

| pushpin_map_caption = Location in Canada

| coordinates = {{coord|62|29|59|N|114|21|31|W|region:CA-NT|format=dms|display=inline,title}}

| place =

| subdivision_type = Territory

| state/province = Northwest Territories

| country = Canada

| owner = Miramar Mining Corporation

| official website =

| acquisition year = 1999

| stock_exchange =

| stock_code =

| products =

| financial year =

| amount =

| opening year = 1948

| closing year = 2004

| discovery year = 1935

}}

The Giant Mine was a gold mine located on the Ingraham Trail, {{convert|5|km|abbr=on}} north of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. Giant Mine was within the Kam Group, a part of the Yellowknife greenstone belt. Gold was discovered on the property and mineral claims staked in 1935 by Johnny Baker, but the true extent of the gold deposits was not known until 1944, when a massive gold-bearing shear zone was uncovered beneath the drift-filled Baker Creek Valley.

History

The discovery led to a massive post-war staking boom in Yellowknife. Giant Mine entered production in 1948 and ceased operations in 2004. It produced over {{convert|7000000|ozt|kg|abbr=on|lk=in}} of gold.Silke, Ryan (2009). The Operational History of Mines in the Northwest Territories, Canada. Self Published {{ISBN?}} {{page needed|date=September 2024}}Silke, Ryan (2012). High Grade Tales: Stories from mining camps of the Northwest Territories. Self Published {{page needed|date=September 2024}} {{ISBN?}} Owners of the mine have included Falconbridge (1948–1986 through subsidiary Giant Yellowknife Mines Limited), Pamour of Australia (1986–1990 through subsidiary Giant Yellowknife Mines Limited), and Royal Oak Mines (1990–1999). When Royal Oak went bankrupt in 1999 the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (DIAND) took over responsibility for cleaning up the Giant mine site. Miramar Mining Corporation subsequently entered into an arrangement with the government whereby Miramar held the mine operation in care and maintenance, continued underground dewatering operations, and removed the remaining ore from underground for treatment at the nearby Con Mine process facility (1999–2004).

According to an article published in The Star in 2006, there were 15 sealed underground storage chambers 250 feet below ground containing a total of {{convert|237000|t|abbr=off}} of deadly arsenic trioxide dust, containing up to 60% organic and inorganic arsenic. The dust was a byproduct of extracting gold from the mineral and was collected and stored in sealed underground chambers from 1951 to 1999. Prior to legislated collection and underground storage in 1951 arsenic was released directly into the atmosphere during the roasting process.{{citation|title=Disaster brewing at Giant mine site |url=http://www.nnsl.com/frames/newspapers/2006-07/jul10_06g.html|first=Mike W. |last=Bryant |publisher=Northern News Services |location=Yellowknife |date=10 July 2006 |accessdate=2 October 2014 |newspaper=News/North |page=1|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170808174449/http://www.nnsl.com/frames/newspapers/2006-07/jul10_06g.html |archive-date=8 August 2017}} Arsenic trioxide readily dissolves in water; in 2006 underground flooding around Giant Mine's Mill Pond's underground chamber which contained {{convert|16946|t|abbr=off}} of arsenic trioxide dust threatened to migrate out of the chamber if it was flooded and dump large amounts of arsenic into Yellowknife Bay.

=Bombing=

On September 18, 1992, at the height of a labour dispute during the tenure of Royal Oak Mines ownership, an explosion in a drift of the mine, {{convert|750|ft|abbr=on}} underground, killed nine strikebreakers. Mine employee Roger Warren was later convicted of placing the bomb. The strike/lockout ended in 1993, pursuant to an order by the (then) Canada Labour Relations Board. A civil suit also resulted on behalf of the families of the replacement workers killed in the explosion (Fullowka v. Royal Oak Ventures Inc.). In 2008, the nine Giant Mine widows lost their $10-million civil judgment when the Northwest Territories Supreme Court overturned an earlier ruling.{{citation|date=27 May 2008|accessdate=2 October 2014 |title=Court overturns award to Giant Mine widows|location=Yellowknife, Northwest Territories |work=The Star |url=https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2008/05/27/court_overturns_award_to_giant_mine_widows.html}} Roger Warren died in 2019.

Contamination

Mining operations over five decades have created a massive environmental liability, a problem which the mine's previous owners left to the Government of Canada and Government of the Northwest Territories to sort out. The site's {{convert|950|ha|abbr=on}} footprint includes 8 open pits, 4 tailing ponds, {{convert|325000|m3|abbr=on}} of contaminated soils, and approximately 100 buildings including a roaster/bag house complex that is highly contaminated with arsenic trioxide dust and fibrous asbestos.{{Cite book |last=Jamieson |first=H.E. |url=https://nwtdiscoveryportal.enr.gov.nt.ca/geoportaldocuments/Regional-distribution-of-arsenic-in-near-surface-soils-in-the-Yellowknife-area.pdf |title=Regional distribution of arsenic in near-surface soils in the Yellowknife area |last2=Maitland |first2=K.M. |last3=Oliver |first3=J.T. |last4=Palmer |first4=M.J. |publisher=Northwest Territories Geological Survey |year=2017 |location=Yellowknife |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Palmer |first=M.J. |url=http://library.assembly.gov.nt.ca/2016/ITI_NTGS/a355983.pdf |title=The concentration of arsenic in lake waters of the Yellowknife area |last2=Galloway |first2=J.M. |last3=Jamieson |first3=H.E. |last4=Patterson |first4=R.T. |last5=Falck |first5=H. |last6=Kokelj |first6=S.V. |publisher=Northwest Territories Geological Survey |year=2016 |location=Yellowknife |language=en}} The remediation plan proposed by the SRK Consulting Inc. and SENES Consultants Limited,{{citation|title=Technical Advisors |url=http://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100027449/1100100027450 |accessdate=2 October 2014 |date=24 July 2013|work=Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160818065352/http://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100027449/1100100027450 |archive-date=18 August 2016}} the leading technical advisors since 2000 to Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada on the Giant Mine Remediation Project, includes underground issues such as dust that contains arsenic trioxide, and remediation of the surface, water and Baker Creek.

= Remediation =

Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada reported that the "greatest challenge associated with the remediation of Giant Mine"{{citation|title=Arsenic Trioxide and the Frozen Block Method |url=http://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100027422/1100100027423 |accessdate=2 October 2014 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006084322/http://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100027422/1100100027423 |archivedate=6 October 2014 |date=24 July 2013 |work=Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada |url-status=dead }} is the safe long-term storage {{convert|237000|t|abbr=on}} of the arsenic trioxide dust, the lethal byproduct of extracting gold from the mineral arsenopyrite ore{{citation|publisher=The Economist |title=Canada's Giant Mine: Giant headache |date=27 September 2014 | location=Yellowknife, NWT |url=https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2014/10/09/giant-headache}} stored underground. Their top priority for the Giant Mine site remediation is an "effective, long-term management" of arsenic trioxide. Arsenic trioxide dust, which contains approximately 60% arsenic, is highly lethal even in small doses. It is odourless, tasteless and semi water-soluble. The arsenic trioxide dust is stored in 15 stope or rock chambers that have been sealed with concrete approximately {{convert|250|ft|m|abbr=off|sp=us}} below the surface.

The taxpayer-funded (c. $900m to approximately one billion dollars) remediation plan to permanently freeze the underground arsenic trioxide dust chambers was approved by the Canadian federal government in August 2014.{{cite web | url=http://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100027395/1100100027396 | title=Giant Mine Remediation Plan | accessdate=2 October 2014 |work=Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada}} According to the federal civil servant in charge of the clean-up, Jane Amphlett, using technology like that used in ice-hockey rinks, coolants will permanently freeze the storage chambers containing the arsenic trioxide dust to keep groundwater seepage out in what is called the "Frozen Block Method." In 2022, the cost was revised upwards to $4.38 billion due to more stringent requirements and more comprehensive remediation of the site. {{cite web |title=What's happening at Giant Mine? September to December 2022 |url=https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1671719019334/1671719068612 |website=Government of Canada |publisher=Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada |access-date=26 February 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240511222858/https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1671719019334/1671719068612 |archive-date=May 11, 2024}}

A Yellowknife community museum is envisioned for part of the former Giant Mine townsite.

In winter 2020 the Yellowknives Dene First Nation (YKDFN) demonstrated outside the site demanding a federal apology, compensation, and a role in the contracts for remediation. They launched their own website which details the story from their point of view.{{Cite news|title=Yellowknives Dene demand federal compensation, economic benefits from Giant Mine |language=en-US|work=CBC News|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/ykdn-demands-compensation-giant-mine-1.5826317|access-date=2020-12-04}}

Film

The events and aftermath of the Giant Mine labour dispute and explosion were dramatized in the 1996 CBC television movie Giant Mine. Additionally, the contamination is the topic of the interactive documentary "Shadow of a Giant" by Saskatchewan filmmaker Clark Ferguson who was artist in residence with Western Arctic Moving Pictures (WAMP) in 2013.{{citation |title=Artist in residence leaves city after almost three-month stint: New local film to be produced from experience |first=Nicole |last=Garbutt |publisher=Northern News Services |date= 4 December 2013 |url=http://www.nnsl.com/arts/stories/dec4_12takX.html |location=SOMBA K'E/Yellowknife, Northwest Territories |accessdate=2 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170517164201/http://www.nnsl.com/arts/stories/dec4_12takX.html |archive-date=17 May 2017}}

References

External links

[https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/giant-mine-murders-ten-years-later "Giant Mine 10 Years Later"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170924135829/http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/en/article/giant-mine-murders-ten-years-later/ |date=2017-09-24 }}. Maclean's Magazine, Jonathon Gatehouse, 03/17/2003 via The Canadian Encyclopedia
{{cite web | url=http://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100027364/1100100027365 | title=Giant Mine Remediation Project | accessdate=2014-02-03}}
[https://gnwt.accesstomemory.org/150 Giant Yellowknife Mines Ltd. fonds. Northwest Territories Archives]

Category:Gold mines in the Northwest Territories

Category:Miners' labour disputes in Canada

Category:1992 disasters in Canada

Category:Mining disasters in Canada

Category:Disasters in the Northwest Territories

Category:Underground mines in Canada

Category:20th-century mass murder in Canada

Category:Mass murder in 1992

Category:1990s murders in Canada

Category:1992 crimes in Canada

Category:1992 murders in North America

Category:1992 labor disputes and strikes