The Giant Mine was a

gold mine Gold Mine may refer to: * Gold Mine (board game) *Gold Mine (Long Beach), an arena *"Gold Mine", a song by Joyner Lucas from the 2020 album ''ADHD Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characteri ...

located on the Ingraham Trail, north of

Yellowknife Yellowknife (; Dogrib: ) is the capital, largest community, and only city in the Northwest Territories, Canada. It is on the northern shore of Great Slave Lake, about south of the Arctic Circle, on the west side of Yellowknife Bay near the ...

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...

. Giant Mine was within the Kam Group, a part of the Yellowknife greenstone belt.

Gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...

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 In geology, a shear zone is a thin zone within the Earth's crust or upper mantle that has been strongly deformed, due to the walls of rock on either side of the zone slipping past each other. In the upper crust, where rock is brittle, the she ...

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 of gold. 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 Royal Oak Mines Incorporated was a gold mining company, founded in 1990 by Margaret "Peggy" Witte (now known as Margaret Kent) in Kirkland, Washington. The company held numerous gold and base metal properties in Canada, including the Giant Mine ...

(1990–1999). When Royal Oak went bankrupt in 1999 the

Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

(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 of deadly

arsenic trioxide Arsenic trioxide, sold under the brand name Trisenox among others, is an inorganic compound and medication. As an industrial chemical, whose major uses include in the manufacture of wood preservatives, pesticides, and glass. As a medication, it ...

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. Arsenic trioxide readily dissolves in water; in 2006 underground flooding around Giant Mine's Mill Pond's underground chamber which contained 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 A labor dispute is a disagreement between an employer and employees regarding the terms of employment. This could include disputes regarding conditions of employment, fringe benefits, hours of work, tenure, and wages to be negotiated during co ...

during the tenure of

ownership, an explosion in a

drift Drift or Drifts may refer to: Geography * Drift or ford (crossing) of a river * Drift, Kentucky, unincorporated community in the United States * In Cornwall, England: ** Drift, Cornwall, village ** Drift Reservoir, associated with the village ...

of the mine, underground, killed nine men riding through a transport tunnel in a man-car. The

strikebreaker A strikebreaker (sometimes called a scab, blackleg, or knobstick) is a person who works despite a strike. Strikebreakers are usually individuals who were not employed by the company before the trade union dispute but hired after or during the st ...

s who lost their lives were Chris Neill, 29, Joe Pandev, 55, Norm Hourie, 53, David Vodnoski, 25, Shane Riggs, 27, and Vern Fullowka, 36. The remaining three men were replacement workers Robert Rowsell, 37, Malcolm Sawler, 38, and Arnold Russell, 41. Mine employee

Roger Warren Roger Wallace Warren (December 17, 1943 – July 24, 2019) was a Canadian miner who was convicted of nine counts of second-degree murder in connection to the September 18, 1992 Giant Mine bombings near Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada. ...

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.

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 The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown-i ...

and

Government of the Northwest Territories The Politics of Northwest Territories involves not only the governance of the Northwest Territories but also the social, economic and political issues specific to the territory. This includes matters relating to local governance and governance by ...

to sort out. The site's footprint includes 8 open pits, 4 tailing ponds, of contaminated soils, and approximately 100 buildings including a roaster/bag house complex that is highly contaminated with arsenic trioxide dust and

fibrous Fiber or fibre (from la, fibra, links=no) is a natural or artificial substance that is significantly longer than it is wide. Fibers are often used in the manufacture of other materials. The strongest engineering materials often incorporat ...

asbestos Asbestos () is a naturally occurring fibrous silicate mineral. There are six types, all of which are composed of long and thin fibrous crystals, each fibre being composed of many microscopic "fibrils" that can be released into the atmosphere b ...

. The remediation plan proposed by the SRK Consulting Inc. and SENES Consultants Limited, 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 Aborigine, aborigine or aboriginal may refer to: *Aborigines (mythology), in Roman mythology * Indigenous peoples, general term for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area *One of several groups of indigenous peoples, see ...

reported that the "greatest challenge associated with the remediation of Giant Mine" is the safe long term storage of the arsenic trioxide dust, the lethal byproduct of extracting gold from the mineral

arsenopyrite Arsenopyrite ( IMA symbol: Apy) is an iron arsenic sulfide (FeAsS). It is a hard ( Mohs 5.5-6) metallic, opaque, steel grey to silver white mineral with a relatively high specific gravity of 6.1. When dissolved in nitric acid, it releases elem ...

ore 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 250 feet, 75 meters 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. 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 Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and Pore space in soil, soil pore spaces and in the fractures of stratum, rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit ...

seepage out in what is called the "Frozen Block Method." 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.

Film

The events and aftermath of the Giant Mine labour dispute and explosion were dramatized in the 1996 CBC

television movie A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...

Giant Mine The Giant Mine was a gold mine located on the Ingraham Trail, 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 sta ...

''. 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.

References

External links

"Giant Mine 10 Years Later"
. ''Maclean's Magazine'', Jonathon Gatehouse, 03/17/2003 via ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' *
Giant Yellowknife Mines Ltd. fonds. Northwest Territories Archives
{{Authority control Gold mines in the Northwest Territories Miners' labor disputes Labour disputes in Canada 1992 disasters in Canada Mining disasters in Canada Disasters in the Northwest Territories Underground mines in Canada Mass murder in Canada Mass murder in 1992 1992 murders in Canada Massacres in Canada