Nahanni Butte says Cantung review will delay cleanup

The Nahɂą Dehé Dene Band in Nahanni Butte, N.W.T., says a regulator’s decision to send the Cantung mine cleanup plan to an environmental assessment will delay remediation by at least two years, even as two other First Nations argued the plan needed that scrutiny.

“A decade after mining ended at Cantung, we still have no timeline for when the site will be cleaned up,” Chief Steve Vital said in a news release Monday. “Instead of making progress, the Water Board is kicking the can down the road and adding more red tape.”

The Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board issued its decision last Thursday. It referred the Cantung Mine Closure and Reclamation plan to the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board, saying the plan could have a significant adverse impact on the environment and cause public concern.

Nahanni Butte is the first community directly downstream of the former tungsten mine, near the N.W.T.-Yukon border. The band said it has worked with the federal government on the project for a decade and had asked the board in August to skip an assessment, calling the proposed work technically sound.

Two other First Nations that commented on the plan took a different view, CBC North reported. Liard First Nation in Yukon and Łı́ı́dlı̨ı̨ Kų́ę́ First Nation, based in Fort Simpson, both pointed to historical tailings on the Flat River floodplain and want the owner to remove them rather than leave them in place. Cabin Radio reported that Łı́ı́dlı̨ı̨ Kų́ę́ cited severe technical deficiencies, though the board said the nation had not expressly asked for an assessment.

The board said those floodplain tailings are actively leaching metals into the river. A spill report from August noted standing water that took on an orange colour as it drained toward the Flat River. North American Tungsten Corporation Limited, the mine’s owner, plans to stabilize the tailings in place and has refused to change that part of the plan, the board said.

Cantung operated from 1962 to 1986. North American Tungsten bought it in 1997 and reopened it several times before entering creditor protection in 2015. The mine has been in care and maintenance since.

The dispute is the latest in a run of northern mine closure fights. As we reported, the Faro Mine cleanup contract in Yukon has grown to $542 million with a single bidder, and Diavik says its closure is on schedule. Nahanni Butte also made headlines last month when its flood plan won a national planning award.

The matter is now before the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board.

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