Nanisivik, Nunavut
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Nanisivik (; ) is a now-abandoned
company town A company town is a place where all or most of the stores and housing in the town are owned by the same company that is also the main employer. Company towns are often planned with a suite of amenities such as stores, houses of worship, schoo ...
which was built in 1975 to support the lead-zinc mining and
mineral processing Mineral processing is the process of separating commercially valuable minerals from their ores in the field of extractive metallurgy. Depending on the processes used in each instance, it is often referred to as ore dressing or ore milling. Be ...
operations for the
Nanisivik Mine Nanisivik Mine was a zinc-lead mine in the company town of Nanisivik, Nunavut, north of the Arctic Circle on Baffin Island. It was Canada's first mine in the Arctic. The mine first opened on 15 October 1976 and permanently closed in September ...
, in production between 1976 and 2002. The townsite is located just inland from Strathcona Sound, about east of the community of
Arctic Bay Arctic Bay (Inuktitut syllabics: ᐃᒃᐱᐊᕐᔪᒃ, ''Ikpiarjuk'', "the pocket") is an Inuit hamlet located in the northern part of the Borden Peninsula on Baffin Island in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, Canada. Arctic Bay is located in ...
in the Canadian territory of
Nunavut Nunavut is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' and the Nunavut Land Claims Agr ...
. There is a port and dock about north of the abandoned mine site, which was used for shipping concentrate from the site, and receiving supplies (). It is used by the
Canadian Coast Guard The Canadian Coast Guard (CCG; ) is the coast guard of Canada. Formed in 1962, the coast guard is tasked with marine search and rescue (SAR), communication, navigation, and transportation issues in Canadian waters, such as navigation aids and i ...
for training. Nanisivik Airport, located south, was used as the main airport for Arctic Bay until 2010, when the lengthened
Arctic Bay Airport Arctic Bay Airport is an airport located southeast of Arctic Bay, Nunavut, Canada. Until January 12, 2010 Nanisivik Airport, about from Arctic Bay, was used for scheduled flights. On January 13, 2010, First Air transferred all air services t ...
took over. The airport is about directly southeast of Arctic Bay but the road between them is .


Demographics

In the
2021 Canadian census The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canada, Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, whic ...
conducted by
Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; ), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture. It is headquartered in ...
, Nanisivik had a population of 0, no change from its 2016 population of 0. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.


Geology

The ore deposit resides within dolomite from the Society Cliffs Formation covered with dolomitic shale from the Victor Bay Formation, which together form the Uluksan Group and reside on top of silty shale. The ore is believed to have formed when hot saline water bearing the metal ions of sodium, calcium, chlorine, and sulfate mixed with cooler carbonate-rich brine in the presence of natural gas or methane, which produced hydrogen sulfide through reducing the sulfate. The hydrogen sulfide then reacted with the metals to form the sulfides of
marcasite The mineral marcasite, sometimes called "white iron pyrite", is iron sulfide (FeS2) with orthorhombic crystal structure. It is physically and crystallographically distinct from pyrite, which is iron sulfide with cubic crystal structure. Both ...
(FeS2),
pyrite The mineral pyrite ( ), or iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula Fe S2 (iron (II) disulfide). Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral. Pyrite's metallic luster and pale brass-yellow hue ...
(),
sphalerite Sphalerite is a sulfide mineral with the chemical formula . It is the most important ore of zinc. Sphalerite is found in a variety of deposit types, but it is primarily in Sedimentary exhalative deposits, sedimentary exhalative, Carbonate-hoste ...
(), and
galena Galena, also called lead glance, is the natural mineral form of lead(II) sulfide (PbS). It is the most important ore of lead and an important source of silver. Galena is one of the most abundant and widely distributed sulfide minerals. It crysta ...
(PbS). The Nanisivik deposit once contained 60 million metric tons of pyrite and 12 million tons of lead-zinc ore.Gait, Robert I., George W. Robinson, Karen Bailey, and Doug Dumka
Minerals of The Nanisivik Mine
Nov-Dec 1990 (Volume 21, Number 6) The Mineralogical Record. N.p., 05 Oct. 2011. Web. 03 Sept. 2013.


Mineralogy

The Nanisivik mine is known for its diversity of unusual pyrite pseudomorphs after
marcasite The mineral marcasite, sometimes called "white iron pyrite", is iron sulfide (FeS2) with orthorhombic crystal structure. It is physically and crystallographically distinct from pyrite, which is iron sulfide with cubic crystal structure. Both ...
and
pyrrhotite Pyrrhotite (''Pyrrhus of Epirus, pyrrhos'' in Greek language, Greek meaning "flame-coloured"'')'' is an iron sulfide mineral with the formula Fe(1−x)S (x = 0 to 0.125). It is a nonstoichiometric compound, nonstoichiometric variant of FeS, th ...
.


History


Ore discovery

Arthur English was a prospector on CGS ''Arctic'', the steamship of Captain Joseph-Elzéar Bernier, as part of the
Geological Survey of Canada The Geological Survey of Canada (GSC; , CGC) is a Canadian federal government agency responsible for performing geological surveys of the country developing Canada's natural resources and protecting the environment. A branch of the Earth Science ...
in 1910. They wintered the 1910-11 winter in Arctic Bay ( south-east of Nanisivik). In 1911 Arthur English published his discovery of a "very large body of ore" at Nanisivik.


Development

J.F. Tibbitt and F. McInnes travelled from
Churchill, Manitoba Churchill is a subarctic port town in northern Manitoba, Canada, on the west shore of Hudson Bay, roughly from the Manitoba–Nunavut border. It is most famous for the many polar bears that move toward the shore from inland in the autumn, leadi ...
to Nanisivik by
dog sled A dog sled or dog sleigh is a sled pulled by one or more sled dogs used to travel over ice and through snow, a practice known as mushing. Numerous types of sleds are used, depending on their function. They can be used for Sled dog racing, dog sl ...
() and staked their claims in 1937, but were unable to develop them. In 1956 R. G. Blackadar and R. R. H. Lemon published maps of the region for another Geological Survey of Canada. Soon thereafter Texas Gulf Sulfur Company (later Texasgulf Inc., now broken up into bits such as Intrepid Potash) evaluated the region and staked 15 claims. Extensive drilling and exploration over the next decade led to the procurement of heavy equipment in 1970 and bulk metallurgical testing.
Mineral Resources International In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid substance with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2011): Mi ...
of
Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...
, Alberta, traded the rights to a sulphur deposit in Mexico for a long term option on the Strathcona Sound property, which eventually translated into 54% ownership of Nanisivik Mines Limited. Strathcona Mineral Services Limited was hired to run the mine as an independent manager and successfully initiated production.


Operation

The mine opened in 1976 and yielded primarily zinc, however silver and lead were collected as by-products. It is in
permafrost Permafrost () is soil or underwater sediment which continuously remains below for two years or more; the oldest permafrost has been continuously frozen for around 700,000 years. Whilst the shallowest permafrost has a vertical extent of below ...
, north of the
Arctic Circle The Arctic Circle is one of the two polar circles, and the northernmost of the five major circle of latitude, circles of latitude as shown on maps of Earth at about 66° 34' N. Its southern counterpart is the Antarctic Circle. The Arctic Circl ...
and operated year-round through accumulating ore during the winter and shipping in the summer (July–November). Annual production totalled 125,000 tons of ore, which was sold to European smelters via Belgium. Conwest Exploration Company Ltd. eventually acquired the mine.


Mine closure

Since the closure of the mine in 2002, reclamation has been ongoing and the town is abandoned. Residents of Arctic Bay had hoped that the Government of Nunavut would be able to find a new use for the former town site, potentially a trades training centre. They had also hoped to be able to move some of the buildings and equipment to their community. Due to heavy lead-zinc contamination, this was not possible and the homes have been demolished. Local telephone service was discontinued on February 19, 2007, on approval from
CRTC The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; ) is a public organization in Canada tasked with the mandate as a regulatory agency tribunal for various electronic communications, covering broadcasting and telecommunic ...
. As of the 2006 census the population was 0, a drop from the 2001 census with a population of 77.


Conversion to naval station

On August 8, 2007,
CBC News CBC News is the division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the news gathering and production of news programs on the corporation's English-language operations, namely CBC Television, CBC Radio, CBC News Network, and CBC ...
reported that
Canadian Forces The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF; , FAC) are the unified Military, military forces of Canada, including sea, land, and air commands referred to as the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force. Under the ''National Defenc ...
documents showed plans to convert the site into a naval station. The plan, which would turn the former mine's existing port into a deepwater facility, would cost $60 million and it was expected that Prime Minister
Stephen Harper Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. He is to date the only prime minister to have come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ser ...
would make an announcement during his stop in Resolute.> On August 10, 2007, Harper announced construction of a new docking and refuelling facility in Nanisivik for the Canadian Forces, in an effort to maintain a Canadian presence in Arctic waters during the navigable season (June–October). The choice for Nanisivik as a site was partially based on its location within the eastern entrance to the
Northwest Passage The Northwest Passage (NWP) is the sea lane between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, near the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Arctic Archipelago of Canada. The eastern route along the Arctic ...
, and the existence of a deep-water berthing facility at the site, as well as a "jet-capable" airstrip nearby. Detailed planning for the project began in August 2007, with environmental studies and assessments being carried out in the summer of 2008. Construction at the site was originally expected to begin in the summer of 2010, with early operating capability available in 2012. The facility was planned to be fully operational by 2015. Once completed, the naval station will likely be home to the ''Harry DeWolf''-class offshore patrol vessels. These ships have ice-breaking capability and help the government's goal to enforce Canada's sovereignty over the region. These ships will likely allow the ''Victoria''-class submarines to travel in the
Canadian Arctic Northern Canada (), colloquially the North or the Territories, is the vast northernmost region of Canada, variously defined by geography and politics. Politically, the term refers to the three territories of Canada: Yukon, Northwest Territories a ...
region. The facility was to have an initial operational capability in 2012, and be fully complete in 2015 but is behind schedule. Development is being delayed because environmental cleanup has been delayed as much as possible by Breakwater Resources Ltd., owned by Nyrstar N.V. In 2011 and 2012, the government started backing down on the Nanisivik conversion plans, explaining that construction in the far north is too expensive. The station will be primarily used for refuelling
Arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...
patrol and other government vessels, and construction was expected to begin in 2013, with the station operational by 2016. After repeated delays, construction on the site finally commenced in 2015. The station had been expected to be operational in summer 2019. After numerous delays during construction, the expected completion is in 2024. According to the Department of National Defence, the main reasons for the frequent delays are rising costs of construction, logistics issues and a climate that limits the annual construction season.


Geography


Climate

Nanisivik has a
tundra climate The tundra climate is a polar climate sub-type located in high latitudes and high mountains. It is classified as ET according to the Köppen climate classification. It is a climate which at least one month has an average temperature high enough ...
(a
polar climate The polar climate regions are characterized by a lack of warm summers but with varying winters. Every month a polar climate has an average temperature of less than . Regions with a polar climate cover more than 20% of the Earth's area. Most of ...
sub-type under the
Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...
scheme) with long, cold winters and very short, chilly summers that are rarely mild. Early winter tends to be snowiest period of the year, with around 40% of all yearly snowfall falling during this short period.


References


External links


Government will continue seeking positive legacy from Nanisivik mine closure, minister says
''Government of Nunavut. October 1, 2002. Last accessed September 12, 2006.''
Welcome to the Arctic Bay & Nanisivik, Nunavut Photo Album!
''Photographs by Vincent K. Chan. Last accessed September 12, 2006.'' * {{Subdivisions of Nunavut Baffin Island Company towns in Canada Mining communities in Nunavut Ports and harbours of Nunavut Ghost towns in Nunavut Former populated places in the Qikiqtaaluk Region Road-inaccessible communities of Nunavut