When lakes serve as garbage cans

Yes, in 2023, lakes can still be used as garbage cans.

Quebec Iron Ore, owned by Australian Champion Iron, wants to double production at the Bloom Lake mine, near Fermont in northern Quebec, and operate it until 2040. To do this, it must considerably increase its storage capacity for various residues.

Through this project, nearly 1,000 workers will earn a living at Bloom Lake. This is the clincher of the company, even if a good part of the workers will be commuting. Local communities, including the Innu band council of Uashat Mak Mani-utenam, are in favor of the project. Even environmentalists do not oppose it. The problem is the storage technique.

In fact, the solution chosen by the company for the storage of tailings would cause the destruction of eight lakes (including one of 88 hectares), small watercourses and wetlands, for a total of 235 hectares.

You read that right: we dig a mine and we propose to fill lakes with the tailings it produces.

In 2021, in a very severe report, the Bureau d’audience publique sur l’environnement (BAPE) opposed this use of lakes and wetlands as storage sites.^⁠1. In March 2022, despite the opposition of the BAPE, the Quebec government authorized the project^⁠2. The federal government has just completed its own consultations, the ball is now in its court. He should give, or not, his authorization this fall.

The BAPE report highlights three issues in which the federal government should take an interest.

First issue

We understand, in the BAPE report, that the company adopted such strict criteria for the evaluation of the alternatives that it could only conclude that the lakes and wetlands bordering the project had to be destroyed. . For example, it excluded solutions such as surface storage more than 10 km from the mine, the use of a technique called “codisposition” or the possibility of using areas already occupied by other discharges. The mining company would have ruled out these options “without adequate justification”, even if, according to the BAPE, the work schedule would give it enough time to conduct the additional studies necessary to review the alternatives.

In short, it has not made great efforts to find an alternative to the destruction of lakes and wetlands.

Second issue

The company says there will still be mineable ore after 2040, so 100% of the pit must be left open for eventual access. This makes sense, except that the company proves neither the first assertion (that the ore present under the pit would be exploitable) nor the second (that it is necessary to leave 100% of the pit open to do so). The stakes are high, because if it is possible to fill the pit, even partially, the storage problem is no longer the same. I therefore reformulate the company’s position: we will destroy eight lakes, “just in case”.

Third issue

I now bring you to the last paragraph of the BAPE report: “The experience of the Lac Bloom project shows us that it is necessary to have a more forward-looking approach to mining development in order to anticipate problems related to development upstream. of a mining lease. In this context, the initiator of a mining project should provide a long-term vision of the development of his mining lease in order to better anticipate the various ecological, social and economic issues related to his mining strategy. »

I rephrase: it’s a huge project and there is no complete long-term planning! We’re digging a mine that will be operated for decades, we’re looking for ways to store 1.3 billion tonnes, yes, 1.3 billion tonnes of tailings… without analyzing the long-term consequences of all this! I rephrase again: “Coudonc, are we still XIX^e century ??? »

The entire storage project as presented by the company costs $50 million. Do you think that’s a lot? According to Radio-Canada, revenues generated through the Bloom Lake mine have increased from $785 million in 2020 to more than $1.2 billion in 2021 for a record net profit of $464 million that year.^⁠3. It seems to me that there is room for respecting the environment while remaining profitable.

The owner of the Bloom Lake mine alone pays 27.7% of all mining royalties in Quebec, or $130.6 million. I refrain from thinking that there is a connection between this amount and the complacency shown by the Government of Quebec.

In short, the federal government should demand that the company redo its homework, it has the time and the means.

The Quebec government is currently holding a consultation on the “harmonious development of mining activity”, an online survey and briefs. I invite you to participate.