Atlantic Gold are crying poor mouth about cost overruns while using the equivalent of garden pump to fix a breach in the main tailings pond that threatens Eastern Shore wilderness and rivers, streams and lakes.
Recent belly-aching performances about the increasing costs of extracting gold out of several gold claims on Nova Scotia's pristine Eastern Shore deserve an academy award for both the drama and the significant risk that they are hiding in the news. Reporting that it is costing more, $200 million plus, and that the conditions for permitting are more complicated than expected are evidence that money and not morality is a root problem that is hiding what could be irreversible damage to some of the province’s last frontiers. Our wild, untouched and rugged undiscovered Eastern Shore!
It all leaves one wondering how they could be off by hundreds of millions and what have they hidden in pursuit of cheap gold at the expense of Nova Scotia's environment. In fairness Nova Scotia should be welcoming industries that make a positive impact and live up to the often quoted, “leaving future generations some thing as good or better than we started with.” It is hard to reconcile that with canyon sized scars, mountains of potentially toxic overburden piles and man-made impoundments of toxic tailings water.
The facts get in the way of the truth and in this case money. Many international miners would find it not feasible to operate in Nova Scotia if they had to meet the moral standard of protecting and preserving the environment both as they operate and after they exhaust their claims. They operate large scale mines which are impressive and only to outdone by the fancy public relations and lobbying which are designed to feed false project feasibility to shareholders.
The Touquoy Gold Mine, which is nearing its end of operations on Nova Scotia's Eastern Shore is a perfect example. Located in Moose River this massive watershed of lakes, ponds, streams, rivers and wetlands are clearly at risk from this mine’s toxic tailings pond. The operation poses a clear risk of incalculable proportions.
And just to be clear, tailing ponds are not 100% leak proof and the mining industry history is littered with disastrous breaches vulnerable to changing climate and weather. Many in 3rd world impoverished back water regions of the world starving for economic development and vulnerable to resource and environmental exploitation. Surely a site only a twenty-minute flight from our region’s capital, Halifax, deserves better!
During recent observation of the mine site there was evidence of a leak staining the containment berm, and a jerry -rigged operation pumping escaped water back into the pond for what appears to be a breach. One only needs to look down stream of the tailing ponds to see the pristine natural environment that could be destroyed.
Beyond the tailings pond and most obvious risk there is a literal mountain of tailings over burden rock from the massive open pit. This rock undoubtedly, contaminated as a result of pulverized rock and now heavy metals like aluminum exposed to the surface. It has the potential to contaminate ground water where it sits and could represent an even greater risk if it is returned to the pit which would need a massive civil engineering solution like a liner which would attempt to prevent leaching in to ground water and the water table as well as a host of other ongoing mitigation and management issues for the next century. The gold or promise of it is not cheap when you add the costs of being responsible to it. It is more than conceivable that if the project was costed to be net zero impact to the environment the combination of bonds and required mitigation would make this the most expensive gold on the planet. Why then would educated and informed people sell Nova Scotians short?
There is no question, Nova Scotia needs to attract industry and responsible resource development. There will be cases where being responsible will impact the viability of resource development but that is not a reason to sell Nova Scotians short and potentially destroy something far more valuable...our natural environment. The Touquoy Gold Mine was the result of flawed public policy and political leadership which allowed development in a sensitive environment. Sadly, it is not the only example where lands that should have been designated as protected were made available without protection. Let’s not make the same decisions and mistakes over and over again.
While there has been no apparent or reported damages to this point in time ask yourself this question. Do the stains and use of a water pump to return escaped toxic water show evidence that a disaster is in the making? Let’s not let events like this continue to happen, for the poor mouthing exercise of cost over runs because the process of making good decisions and protecting the environment is expensive. Don’t be confused by the mega dollar values of the operations when the lions share goes to offshore investors. Most importantly let’s do the right things the next time and slam the brakes on what is the warmup act for getting approvals absent of the commitment to do no harm to our province.