Yellowknife Mine Sits Atop A Lethal Store Of Arsenic | HuffPost

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Northern Mine Sits Atop A LETHAL Store Of Arsenic

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A mine in the Northwest Territories sits atop a lethal store of arsenic that would be enough to kill every man, woman and child in the world, Vice reports.

And a northern regulator wants to know precisely what will be done to keep it it from seeping out.

Proponents of the Giant Mine Remediation Project aim to freeze 237,000 tonnes of arsenic trioxide dust stored in chambers under the mine in Yellowknife, N.W.T. in order to keep it from contaminating nearby water, says Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC).

The Mackenzie Valley Review Board, which conducts environmental impact assessments in the north, has been in discussion with the feds on how best to proceed with the nearly $1-billion project, CTV News reported.

In February it sent a letter to Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt recommending that an independent watchdog supervise the cleanup, and that ongoing research be funded in order to deal with the mine's environmental impacts.

The board awaits the minister's response.

The dust being stored underground is dangerous. It's made of 60 per cent arsenic, and the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry estimates that as little as 70 to 180 milligrams of the substance can kill a person.

Multiply 237,000 by 60 per cent, convert that to milligrams, divide that number by 7 billion people and Vice's estimates seem pretty astute.

If it were to dissolve in water, the dust could contaminate nearby Baker Creek and Great Slave Lake. Indeed, in 1951, when the mine wasn't regulated, a boy with the Yellowknives Dene First Nation died after eating some snow near the site, the website reported.

The dust was a by-product of gold extraction that occurred at the mine from 1948 to 2004. It resulted in an arsenic-rich gas that was captured as dust and stored in underground chambers, said a 2010 report.

The mine's operators hoped that permafrost would trap the arsenic underground, but mining in the area has caused some of that frost to thaw, leaving water to seep in and out of some of the underground chambers.

The federal government took over the mine in 1999, and when the frost didn't materialize, a group including the federal, provincial and Yellowknife city governments resolved to create an "impenetrable barrier" using a "frozen block process" that keeps the ground frozen.

The process involves "thermosyphons," metal tubes that take the heat out of the ground and release it into the air. Similar technology is already in use at the territories' legislative building, where thermosyphons prevent the thawing of permafrost in the parking lot.

Proponents say there will be little sign of a mine, other than some industrial buildings like a water treatment plant.

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The Oilsands In Winter

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Photo courtesy Mark O'Henly/Flickr

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Syncrude's Mildred Lake Upgrader, part of The Syncrude Project complex for oil sands processing, is pictured Monday, March 8, 2006 in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. (credit:Getty)

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The Syncrude oil sands extraction facility is reflected in a lake reclaimed from an old mine near the town of Fort McMurray in Alberta, Canada on October 22, 2009. (credit:Getty)

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A disused mining machine on display in front of the Syncrude oil sands extraction facility near the town of Fort McMurray in Alberta on October 22, 2009. (credit:Getty)

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The Suncor oilsands operation uses trucks that are 3 stories tall, weigh one million pounds, and cost 7 million dollars each. (credit:Getty)

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Oil sits on the surface at a Suncor Energy Inc. oilsands mining operation near Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, on Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2013. Photographer: (credit:Getty)

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A large oil refinery along the Athabasca River in Alberta's Oilsands. Fort McMurray, Alberta. (credit:Getty)

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Oil mixes with water at a tailings pond at a Suncor Energy Inc. oilsands mining operation near Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, on Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2013. (credit:Getty)

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Fort McMurray is in the heart of the world's biggest single oil deposit - the Athabasca Oil Sands, and the oil is extracted by surface mining and refined in the region. The oil production is at the heart of the economy. (credit:Getty)

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In this Aug. 5, 2005 file photo, the Syncrude upgrader spreads out towards the horizon at the company's oil sands project in Ft. McMurray, Alberta, Canada. (credit:AP)

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This Tuesday, July 10, 2012 aerial photo shows a Nexen oil sands facility near Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. (credit:AP)

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This Sept. 19, 2011 aerial photo shows an oilsands facility near Fort McMurray, in Alberta, Canada. (credit:AP)

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This Sept. 19, 2011 aerial photo shows an oilsands tailings pond at a mine facility near Fort McMurray, in Alberta, Canada. (credit:AP)

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This Sept. 19, 2011 aerial photo shows an oilsands tailings pond at a mine facility near Fort McMurray, in Alberta, Canada. (credit:AP)

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The Syncrude extraction facility in the northern Alberta oil sand fields is reflected in the pool of water being recycled for re-use. (credit:Getty Images)

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A night view of the Syncrude oil sands extraction facility near the town of Fort McMurray in Alberta Province, Canada on October 22, 2009. (credit:Getty)

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Aerial view of a lake and forests in the vicinity of oil sands extraction facilities near the town of Fort McMurray in Alberta, Canada on October 23, 2009. (credit:Getty)

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Workers use heavy machinery in the tailings pond at the Syncrude oil sands extraction facility near the town of Fort McMurray in Alberta , Canada on October 25, 2009. (credit:Getty)

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Fort McMurray is in the heart of the world's biggest single oil deposit - the Athabasca Oil Sands, and the oil is extracted by surface mining and refined in the region. The oil production is at the heart of the economy. (credit:Getty)

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A large oil refinery in Alberta's Oilsands project. Fort McMurray, Alberta. (credit:Getty)

CFB Cold Lake, CNRL(29 of53)

A bitumen leak was reported at a Canadian Natural Resources oilsands operation in the weapons range part of the RCAF base in June 2013. (credit:WikiMedia:)

CFB Cold Lake, CNRL(30 of53)

Company officials said the leak - at what it calls its Primrose operation - was caused by faulty machinery at one of the wells, affected an area of approximately 13.5 hectares and released as much as 3,200 litres of bitumen each day. (credit:Getty)

CFB Cold Lake, CNRL(31 of53)

Preliminary tallies put the death toll from the leak at 16 birds, seven small mammals and 38 amphibians. Dozen were rescued and taken to an Edmonton centre for rehabilitation. (credit:Shutterstock)

CFB Cold Lake(32 of53)

As of early August 2013, more than 1.1 million litres of bitumen had been pulled from marshlands, bushes and waterways. (credit:Getty)

CFB Cold Lake, CNRL(33 of53)

Although CNRL could not say when the leak may finally be stopped, it estimates it will likely cost more than $40 million to clean up. (credit:Getty)

Plains Midstream(34 of53)

Little Buffalo band member Melina Laboucan-Massimo scoops up July 13, 2012 what appears to oil from the pond shoreline near the site of a 4.5 million-litre Plains Midstream pipeline leak detected April 29, 2011. Photos taken at the site and released by Greenpeace of Alberta's second-worst pipeline spill suggest at least part of the site remains heavily contaminated despite company suggestions that the cleanup is complete. (credit:THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Greenpeace-Joe Whittle)

Plains Midstream Canada(35 of53)

A boat passes by a boom stretching out to contain a pipeline leak on the Gleniffer reservoir near Innisfail, Alta., Tuesday, June 12, 2012. Plains Midstream Canada says one of their non-functioning pipelines leaked between 1,000-3,000 barrels of sour crude near Sundre, Alberta, on June 7 and flowed downstream in the Red Deer river to the reservoir. (credit:THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh)

Plains Midstream Canada(36 of53)

Debris pushes up against a boom as it stretches out to contain a pipeline leak on the Gleniffer reservoir near Innisfail, Alta., Tuesday, June 12, 2012. (credit:THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh)

Plains Midstream Canada(37 of53)

A boom stretches out to contain a pipeline leak on the Gleniffer reservoir near Innisfail, Alta., Tuesday, June 12, 2012. Plains Midstream Canada says one of their non-functioning pipelines leaked between 1,000-3,000 barrels of sour crude near Sundre, Alberta, on June 7 and flowed downstream in the Red Deer river to the reservoir. (credit:THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh)

Plains Midstream(38 of53)

A boom stretches out to contain a pipeline leak on the Gleniffer reservoir near Innisfail, Alta., Tuesday, June 12, 2012. Plains Midstream Canada says one of their non-functioning pipelines leaked between 1,000-3,000 barrels of sour crude near Sundre, Alberta, on June 7 and flowed downstream in the Red Deer river to the reservoir. (credit:THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh)

Plains Midstream Canada(39 of53)

A photographer snaps a boom stretching out to contain a pipeline leak on the Gleniffer reservoir near Innisfail, Alta., Tuesday, June 12, 2012. Plains Midstream Canada says one of their non-functioning pipelines leaked between 1,000-3,000 barrels of sour crude near Sundre, Alberta, on June 7 and flowed downstream in the Red Deer river to the reservoir. (credit:THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh)

Plains Midstream Canada(40 of53)

A boom stretches out to contain a pipeline leak on the Gleniffer reservoir near Innisfail, Alta., Tuesday, June 12, 2012. Plains Midstream Canada says one of their non-functioning pipelines leaked between 1,000-3,000 barrels of sour crude near Sundre, Alberta, on June 7 and flowed downstream in the Red Deer river to the reservoir. (credit:THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh)

Plains Midstream Canada(41 of53)

A worker slows traffic while a boom stretches out to contain a pipeline leak on the Gleniffer reservoir near Innisfail, Alta., Tuesday, June 12, 2012. Plains Midstream Canada says one of their non-functioning pipelines leaked between 1,000-3,000 barrels of sour crude near Sundre, Alberta, on June 7 and flowed downstream in the Red Deer river to the reservoir. (credit:THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh)

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A no swimming sign along the banks of the Gleniffer reservoir while a boom stretches out to contain a pipeline leak on the lake near Innisfail, Alta., Friday, June 12, 2012. Plains Midstream Canada says one of their non-functioning pipelines leaked between 1,000-3,000 barrels of sour crude near Sundre, Alberta, on June 7 and flowed downstream in the Red Deer river to the reservoir. (credit:THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh)

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Oil from a pipeline leak coats a pond near Sundre, Alta., Friday, June 8, 2012. Plains Midstream Canada says one of their non-functioning pipeline leaked between 1,000-3,000 barrels of oil. (credit:THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh)

Plains Midstream Canada(44 of53)

Oil from a pipeline leak coats a pond near Sundre, Alta., Friday, June 8, 2012. Plains Midstream Canada says one of their non-functioning pipeline leaked between 1,000-3,000 barrels of oil. (credit:THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh)

Plains Midstream Canada(45 of53)

Oil from a pipeline leak coats a pond near Sundre, Alta., Friday, June 8, 2012. Plains Midstream Canada says one of their non-functioning pipeline leaked between 1,000-3,000 barrels of oil. (credit:THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh)

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Tracks pass through oil on the banks of the Gleniffer reservoir after a pipeline leak near Sundre, Alta., on Friday, June 8, 2012. Plains Midstream Canada says one of their non-functioning pipelines leaked between 1,000-3,000 barrels of oil. (credit:THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh)

Enbrige's Athabasca pipeline(47 of53)

Approximately 1,450 barrels of oil spilled from a pumping station along Enbridge’s Athabasca pipeline in June 2012.The spill occurred approximately 24 kilometres from Elk Point, Alta., a village located 200 kilometres northeast of Edmonton. (credit:(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Larry MacDougal))

Lake Wabamun(48 of53)

Wreckage from the August 3rd train derailment and subsequent oil spill is seen lining the shore of Lake Wabamun on Monday, August 8, 2005, as clean-up continues. (credit:(CP PHOTO - Tim Smith))

Lake Wabamun(49 of53)

Wreckage and black oil from the August 3rd train derailment and subsequent oil spill are seen lining the shore and waters of Lake Wabamun on Monday, August 8, 2005, as clean-up continues. (credit:(CP PHOTO - Tim Smith))

Lake Wabamun(50 of53)

White absorbent boom is seen lining the shores of Lake Wabamun, Alberta, as the clean-up effort from the August 3rd train derailment and subsequent oil spill continues on Monday, August 8, 2005. (credit:(CP PHOTO - Tim Smith))

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Wreckage and black oil from the August 3rd train derailment and subsequent oil spill are seen lining the shore and waters of Lake Wabamun on Monday, August 8, 2005, as clean-up continues. (credit:(CP PHOTO - Tim Smith))

Lake Wabamun(52 of53)

Wreckage and black oil from the August 3rd train derailment and subsequent oil spill are seen lining the shore and waters of Lake Wabamun on Monday, August 8, 2005, as clean-up continues. Lake Wabamun was severely polluted when a train carrying heavy oil derailed on August 3, 2005, spilling much of it's load into the lake. (credit:(CP PHOTO - Tim Smith))

Lake Wabamun(53 of53)

Rail cars leak bunker fuel oil, meters from summer homes bordering Lake Wabamun, after a freight train derailed, in this August 3, 2005 file photo, near the town of Wabamun, Alta. Canadian National Railway faces an environmental charge stemming from the train derailment and oil spill at a popular Alberta lake last summer. (credit:(CP PICTURE ARCHIVE/ John Ulan))

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