(Montreal) Environmental groups are denouncing the destruction of 37 bodies of water to store mining waste on the Côte-Nord, but this environmental damage is necessary for the completion of a project that will contribute to the energy transition, according to Canada’s Environment Minister, Steven Guilbeault.
Orerai de fer Québec, owner of the Bloom Lake mine, located approximately 13 km northwest of Fermont, has received approval from the federal government to proceed with the destruction of dozens of bodies of water in order to expand its tailings and waste rock storage areas at its mine site.
“There are impacts to mining critical minerals and different components that we will need for the energy transition,” but “the electrification of our transportation and the electrification of our industries will reduce our dependence on oil, which will reduce the impact of climate change,” reacted Minister Guilbeault when The Canadian Press asked him about the reasons for destroying these lakes on Thursday.
An area of 1,560,000 square meters
According to a federal government document published July 3 in the Canada Gazette, the mine’s new tailings storage facility will destroy “37 fish-bearing bodies of water,” representing an area of 156 hectares, or 1,560,000 square metres.
The Fisheries Act prohibits the discharge of deleterious substances into waters frequented by fish, except with government authorization.
“The principle that we use in this case is the principle of compensation, which is a principle that has existed for some time in environmental matters,” recalled Minister Steven Guilbeault, adding that “the project promoter must commit to compensating, through protection, the equivalent of what it destroys, in another location.”
Orerai de fer Québec proposed “seven projects targeting nine separate sites” as compensation.
These projects will “support the conservation and protection of fish and fish habitat” and provide “ecological benefits that are proportionate to the adverse effects resulting from the loss of fish habitat caused by the use of water bodies for the disposal of mine tailings,” reads the document published in the Canada Gazette.
Strong reactions from environmental groups
Members of the Rivières Foundation, Eau Secours, the Quebec Association of Physicians for the Environment and other organizations signed a letter denouncing the federal government’s decision.
They argue that the destruction of lakes is a “practice that has been gradually abandoned or outright banned throughout the world, given its devastating nature, and given that a less damaging alternative exists, namely the backfilling of mining pits using the waste that these pits generate.”
These organizations also recalled that the commission of inquiry of the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE) had asked Minerai de fer Québec to review its project in 2021.
“Unfortunately for the ecosystems and for the populations who depend on them and demand their protection, it is in the name of preserving a presumed mineral potential – therefore highly speculative economic interests at this stage – that alternatives such as backfilling the pits have been ruled out and that the destruction of lakes and waterways in this part of the territory has been authorized,” lamented Émile Cloutier-Brassard, head of mining issues at Eau Secours.
“Allowing the destruction of a lake by burying toxic mining waste in it remains a crime against the environment. No measure can compensate for this crime,” said Daniel Green of the Society to Beat Pollution.
MFQ wants to almost double its iron production
Orerai de fer Québec (MFQ) has been operating the Bloom Lake mine since February 2018 and produces 7.5 million tonnes (Mt) of iron concentrate annually.
The mining company plans to increase its annual production from 7.5 Mt to 16 Mt, with exploitation of the deposit until 2040.
According to the document published on July 3 by the federal government, it is due to this increase in production that “195 million cubic meters (mm3) of sterile and 213 mm3 coarse residues will be generated and will have to be stored in new facilities.