North 2003
Section Index
Mining in Northern Canada
Polaris is historyCleanup and reclamation project cost estimated at $65 million
Renowned as the world's most Northerly base metal mine, Teck Cominco's Polaris closed last August after 21 years of production.
High-grade ore - 13 per cent zinc and four per cent lead - made Polaris one of the lowest cost lead zinc mines in the world, but now its time to give Little Cornwallis Island back to nature.
The total cost of the cleanup and reclamation project is estimated at $65 million.
The Polaris ore body was discovered in 1971. A mill was built on a barge in Trois Rivieres and shipped North. Teck Cominco shipped the ore concentrate to refineries in Europe.
The mine went from production to cleanup mode last September when the lead contractor, SNC-Lavalin Engineers and Constructors Inc. of Montreal, began tearing down the mill.
Local job opportunities
Qikiqtaaluk Corp. is subcontracting the big job of reclaiming the site.
QC will hire about 30 people from High Arctic communities.
The company has already hired 14 workers from Resolute and Pond Inlet to remove contaminated soil from the mine site, starting this summer.
During its life, the mine removed moved 20 millions tones of ore from almost 25 km of tunnels, 280 meters underground.
Polaris was excavated by sub-level blast-hole methods and remote control scoop trams.
The permafrost was preserved with a freezing plant that cooled ventilation air.
Reclamation will carry on for three years and monitoring the environment will continue for seven years. The government of Canada will take over the property in 2011.
Although fewer than 20 of the mine's 255 workers were Northerners, the community of Resolute will feel the effects of the closure.
According to a 1997 study, for every resident who worked at Polaris, another 1.6 was employed in positions created indirectly by the mine.
-Updated August 2003
