Polaris Lead/Zinc Mine

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The Polaris mine, the most northerly mine in the world, started its operations in November 1981. It began with 231 employees, and the principal metals it extracts are calcium, lead and especially zinc, at a production level of 152 700 tonnes in 1997. Zinc comprises a little over 12% of the ore mined, while lead accounts for about 3.5%.

Polaris zinc mine was an underground zinc mine on Little Cornwallis Island in the Canadian territory of Nunavut (Northwest Territories prior to Nunavut's official separation). The Polaris mine was located 1,120 kilometres (700 mi) north of the Arctic Circle, and 96 kilometres (60 mi) north of the community of Resolute. The Polaris mine closed in July of 2002 following more than twenty years of zinc production.

The MV Arctic hauled ore from the Polaris mine
In 1964 Vancouver-based Cominco optioned all the mineral claims in Canada's Arctic that were controlled by Bankaro Mines. Mineral and economic assessments resulted in a 23 million ton reserve at a zinc grade of 14.1%. Approval of the project was obtained in 1979, then Prime Minister Joe Clark waived environmental assessment hearings and pledged to ship half of the concentrate from the mine in the federally owned icebreaker MV Arctic. The entire mineral processing plant, power plant and workshop were built upon a barge and traveled 5,600 kilometres (3,500 mi) from Quebec to the mine site. In 1981 the mine commenced production. The Polaris mine employed over 250 people. Although only 20 mine employees were from northern Canada, thirty percent of employment in Resolute was directly related to the mine.

Production

The Polaris mine produced over 21 million tonne of lead-zinc ore during the life of the mine, with a market value of over $15 billion. Concentrate from the mining operation was stored in a 700 feet (210 m) long warehouse, which was the largest structure in Nunavut. Much of the dorebody was in permafrost so the mine had to be refrigeratged in the summer to keep the mine from flooding and/or caving in.

Closure

Initially the mine was supposed to close in 2001, however due to improved mining techniques, the mine life was extended one year to 2002. Reclamation procedures following the closure of the Polaris mine set a new standard for mine closure in the territory of Nunavut. Reclamation of the mine site began while the mine was still operating, this work was planned to ensure it would not have an adverse affect on the mining operation (such as removal of unused buildings). Cominco intended to bury most of the buildings and materials in a nearby quarry, with the permafrost preventing contamination. Cominco offered the staff accommodations to the federal government for use as a penal colony on the island. Household items were offered to residents of nearby Inuit communities. Cleanup of the Polaris mine site took two years, with environmental monitoring until 2011.

May 11, 2001

Cominco plots clean-up of Polaris mine
Site must be returned "as near as possible to the original state."
AARON SPITZER
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT — When Nunavut’s northernmost mine grinds to a halt next year, a new kind of work at the site will just be beginning.

After more than 20 years of running the Polaris lead-zinc mine in the remote and sometimes brutal high Arctic, its owner, Cominco Ltd., now faces the equally challenging task of returning the delicate landscape to its natural state.

Polaris, located on Little Cornwallis Island northwest of Resolute Bay, will shut down in July of 2002.

Since 1981, miners at the site have been tunneling into the High Arctic earth, digging out more than 21 million tonnes of lead-zinc ore. Added up, the value of the metal extracted from that ore totals a whopping $1.5 billion.

Polaris was originally slated to close this year, said John Knapp, the mine’s manager. But refined mining techniques and the discovery of small additional reserves spared its life for one more year.

There will be no new extensions, Knapp said.

Rebekah Uqi Williams, Nunavut’s MLA for the High Arctic, said Polaris’ clean-up will set a critical precedent for future mine closures in Nunavut.

"A lot of my concerns are environmental," she said.

According to Williams, even though Polaris sits on federal land rather than Inuit land, the remediation work must be as thorough as possible.

"Polar bears don’t know it’s Crown land," she said. "It makes a difference for government people, but for Inuit and animals it doesn’t make any difference."

According to Knapp, preliminary shut-down work at Polaris is already under way.

He said the mine is currently conducting what he calls "progressive reclamations": clean-ups that don’t interrupt day-to-day mining, such as the destruction of derelict buildings and the relocation of an old landfill.

"Polar bears don’t know it’s Crown land. It makes a difference for government people, but for Inuit and animals it doesn’t make any difference."

— MLA Rebekah Uqi Williams

But the real effort to remediate Little Cornwallis Island won’t swing into action until the last ounce of ore is extracted next summer.

Once that happens, Polaris’ 255 mine workers will be flown off the island for the last time. A small crew of Cominco managers will stay on site to oversee the clean-up, but most of the actual work will be done by other contractors.

Currently, the clean-up plans are tentative, subject to the approval of regulatory bodies like the Nunavut Water Board and the federal Department of Indian and Northern Affairs.

Cominco submitted a proposed decommissioning-and-reclamation plan to those agencies in April. Interested parties — like Inuit organizations and the nearby hamlets and HTOs – will have a chance to weigh in on the plan up until September 30. By November a final plan should be in place.

According to Carl McLean, DIAND’s manager of land administration for Nunavut, the mine will be held to rigorous standards of cleanliness.

"I doubt if you’ll ever get it exactly to how it was before," he said. "But there’s a requirement in their land leases to return the land in a condition as near as possible to the original state."

As it stands now, Cominco hopes to bury most of the buildings and other items in a quarry on site. Knapp said encasing the debris in this permanent permafrost "tomb" will prevent leakage and the contamination of the surrounding environment.

Among the buildings slated for destruction is the mine’s 700-foot-long storage facility, which is the largest structure in Nunavut.

Some of the other mine’s buildings may be left standing — but only if regulatory bodies give special approval.

Cominco is offering the mine’s dormitory to anybody willing to buy it. They’ve approached the federal departments of Defense and Corrections, asking them if they’re interested — though Knapp acknowledges it’s unlikely Ottawa will want to build a penal colony on Little Cornwallis Island.

If nobody wants the dormitory, it, too, will be knocked down and buried.

Knapp said certain materials are either too dangerous or too valuable to be left on the island.

Hazardous materials, he said, will be shipped to disposal areas in the South. Any items still in their original packages will be returned to suppliers.

Items like furniture, pool tables and stereo equipment will be offered to residents in Resolute and Grise Fiord, Knapp said.

Because Polaris is an underground rather than an open-pit mine, disturbance to the actual surface of the land has been comparatively minimal.

After the two-year clean-up is complete, site monitoring and water sampling will be conducted by environmental contractors until 2011.

After that, if the various regulatory bodies deem the area sufficiently clean, the land will be turned back over to the federal government, which currently leases the site to Cominco.