Zachary Larsen, acting superintendent with Rio Algom, spoke with council at its Dec. 11 meeting about ongoing work at its mine sites Nordic, Stanleigh and Quirke.
The sites and former tailing areas have been closed for more than 20 years.
Ongoing work, done by Denison Environmental, includes maintenance and monitoring of tailing dams, roads leading to the former mines and water quality. It also includes emergency plans should any of the tailing dams fail.
Drilling of the tailing dams at Quirke and Nordic is being carried out to “determine characteristics of underlying tailings (for) geotechnical as well as geochemical data,” the report presented to council states.
The work is part of the regulatory decommissioning process required at former mine sites.
“There is no danger,” Larsen said of dam safety. “We haven’t identified anything that’s a serious risk.”
In June, the company plans to replace the aging Nordic east and west pumphouses with modern facilities.
Larsen said, although the sites are partially accessible to the public, he cautioned dog owners to ensure their pets are on leash to prevent possible accidents with vehicles used in the site monitoring and maintenance. Dog owners are also urged to, “stoop and scoop – on the sites especially at the gates.”
Fishing and hunting is prohibited on the sites.
“Some of these sites will be monitored... and be ongoing for all of our lifetimes,” Larsen said, responding to a question from Councillor Luc Cyr.