Global Courant 2023-05-29 17:30:00
Nova Scotia is embarking on what many are calling its fourth gold rush — but instead of trading on chunks of gold, mining operations in the province today consist of huge tailings ponds, massive open pits mining tiny traces of gold, and a climate toll taking a toll . expert says we are not tracking well.
Alana Westwood, an assistant professor in the School for Resource and Environmental Studies at Dalhousie University, says Nova Scotia’s regulations are woefully behind and nowhere near able to keep up with the explosion of new mining claims.
“This is happening across Canada, but Nova Scotia is starting to take shape as a focal point for a national conversation,” she told CTV’s Your Morning on Thursday.
And some experts say the little-understood long-term effects of contamination from gold mining in Nova Scotia combined with a new gold rush could create a problem of unprecedented magnitude.
There have been three gold rushes in Nova Scotia’s history: one in the early 19th century, another in the early 20th century, and the most recent in 1942.
Those early miners could never comprehend the scale of mining operations today, Westwood said.
“(They) used picks, worked underground,[in]generally pretty small mines,” she said, adding when it comes to modern mines, “We’re looking at what’s really low quality ore right now. So about one gram per ton of rock, so that’s like a paper clip of gold for every Volkswagen Beetle rock you’re digging out of the ground today.”
In 2013, there were 158 mine exploration licenses active in Nova Scotia, covering only 1.5 percent of Nova Scotia’s total area, according to Westwood’s research.
A 2013 map of the county shows only two mines completed or in progress: the Touquoy Gold Mine and the Donkin Coking Coal Mine.
Just 10 years later, the same map looks vastly different.
There are more than 2,000 permits, covering nearly a fifth of the province’s total landmass. In some regions of Nova Scotia, up to 50 percent of the landmass is covered by mining exploration permits. There are four completed mines, two of which are gold mines and two other gold mines in progress. In 2022, the Touquoy gold mine received approval to increase the capacity of its massive tailings basin by raising the wall by 2.5 meters and extending gold production at the mine site until December 2024.
UNDER REGULATED, OVER EXPANDING
One of the big problems with the explosion of gold mining in Nova Scotia is that regulations aren’t keeping pace, says Westwood.
While the federal government introduced new environmental assessment regulations in 2019, broadening the scope of impact assessments for new projects to ensure companies considered climate change, among other things, most mining projects in Nova Scotia are undergoing provincial assessments, Westwood said.
“There are new federal impact assessment laws – these are designed to allow us to look at the predicted impacts of a project on human health, on the environment, on communities, and then make a decision about whether or not continue with that project.” she explained. “The laws of Nova Scotia are currently outdated. There is a promise from the government to update them much more fully, but we have not yet seen that happen.”
The county’s environmental regulations were last updated in 1995 and do not legally require companies to consider climate change or impacts on Indigenous peoples and nearby communities, Westwood said.
Nova Scotia Environmental law does indicate that when reviewing an application for a project for approval, the Minister will consider “concerns expressed by the public and Indigenous people about the adverse or environmental effects of the proposed venture”, as well as “steps taken by the applicant” to address these concerns, but does not contain any reference to climate change.
“Meanwhile…there’s been a huge increase in the number of claims being filed, and that’s going to lead to more mines being proposed,” Westwood said. “More mines are already going through the impact assessment process than in years.”
Creating resource extraction regulations in Canada is a difficult process as legislators try to balance economic interests with environmental concerns.
In the past 25 years, all of Canada’s mineral reserves have declined in production except gold, according to a 2023 report from the Mining Association of Canadawith gold production exceeding 13 million in 2021, compared to 5.7 million in 2012.
Federal regulations have come under scrutiny since the Impact Assessment Act (IAA) went into effect in 2019. In March, the Supreme Court held a hearing on the constitutionality of the IAA, following a decision by the Alberta Court of Appeal in May 2022 that found the IAA was a federal overreach. Those opposed to the new regulations view them as an unnecessary restriction on resource development that will slow down the economy.
According to Nova Scotia Department of Environment and Climate ChangeAfter a company registers a project proposal for environmental assessment, the government will open a Crown consultation with Nova Scotia’s Mi’kmaq and seek public input to assist with the minister’s decision. Some decisions end in a request for more specific information from the company, or for environmental reports to fill in larger missing information.
But Westwood said Nova Scotia’s current regulatory setup doesn’t allow for a proper look at the cumulative effects of mining projects.
“Not just looking at one project, but looking at what happens when you have a mine and then you open another mine, and then you add other types of development in and around it,” she said.
“We’re already dealing with the legacy of pollution from the much smaller gold mines we had.”
AN UNKNOWN TOLL
The extent of environmental pollution that occurred during Nova Scotia’s first three gold rushes—and how much continues to affect the environment and communities today—is little understood.
A review from 2019 found that the subject is woefully under-researched, but that even the scant data we have indicates that mercury and arsenic from abandoned gold mining sites can still be found in high concentrations in plants, fungi, fish and mammals.
“We still have arsenic and mercury contamination leaching from 100 (year) old gold mines, in our waterways, in our fish. We have methylmercury above toxic levels of this contamination,” Westwood said.
“So I’m a little nervous that we’re not just going to get more of the same, but a lot more of the same if we don’t have better oversight and better engagement for communities to say, ‘Okay, this is the development I want in my community , but there must be safeguards’, or say no to that development if they don’t want it in their community.
Between the mid-19th century and 1950, more than 350 gold mines operated in Nova Scotia. A 2021 study looking at sediments in an urban lake, Lake Charles, which is located near a historic gold mining operation in Nova Scotia, found arsenic levels were 300 times higher levels known to be toxic to living things.
One of the arguments responding to climate criticisms of gold mining is that the precious metal is widely used in circuitry and electronics, potentially helping shifts to more electricity-based technology.
But that represents a fraction of the company, Westwood said.
“Only a small portion goes to technology use — about half is jewelry,” she said. “And then the remaining part mainly goes to investments. Companies, governments, holding gold as collateral, as currency. So very little of it actually goes into these technological applications, or some sort of green transition.”
Contaminants and tailings from gold mines leaching to the ground or water is not a problem unique to these historic mines.
In 2014, a tailings dam collapsed at the Mount Polley copper and gold mine in British Columbia, releasing more than 20 million cubic meters of mine tailings.
A report from the Commission on Environmental Cooperation released in early May found that mining produces more pollutants than any other industry in North America, with an Ontario gold mine topping Canada’s list for most pollutants that can affect human health. to influence.
Atlantic Mining NS Inc., an Australian gold mining company that operates the Touquoy gold mine, was fined $250,000 in February 2022 after pleading guilty to violating federal and provincial laws by releasing harmful substances into the water near the gold mine to deposit. Atlantic Mining N.S. Inc. is a subsidiary of St Barbara Limited and also known as Atlantic Gold Corp.
The government’s impact assessment register, which contains information on potential and ongoing projects in Canada, lists two upcoming Nova Scotia projects from Atlantic Mining NS Inc. as “in progress”, while a third, Cochrane Hill Gold Project, was terminated in August 2022 due to the company failing to provide the required information for environmental assessment within the time limit.
All three projects, including a proposed open-pit gold mine in Marinette, Nova Scotia called the Beaver Dam Mine Project, and an open-pit gold mine 60 miles northeast of Halifax called the Fifteen Mile Stream Gold Project, have sparked controversy.
Environmentalists called for the Cochrane Hill Project to be halted in 2020 after a video showed wild Atlantic salmon preparing to spawn in a river near the proposed project.
The company has previously indicated that the environment is an important consideration in its projects.
“Part of St. Barbara’s corporate commitments has always been safety and respect for the environment,” said the parent company in a 2022 email statement to CTV News Atlantic in response to concerns over the expansion of the Touquoy Tailings Basin. “Our company will continue to work with all parties to ensure we deliver on these commitments in the communities in which we operate, now and in the future.”
