This article was provided by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA), an organization that was established in 1920 to represent the mining industry of the province.
The sixth annual Ontario Mine Reclamation Symposium, which was held in Cobalt June 18 and 19, attracted a record number of delegates. More than 150 environmental specialists attended this event, which was organized by the Ontario Mining Association in collaboration with the Ontario Chapter of the Canadian Land Reclamation Association (CLRA).
The conference combined technical sessions with an extended field trip in Cobalt – one of the oldest mining regions in Canada – which covered part of the Heritage Silver Trail. The gathering also included opportunities to celebrate excellence in mine reclamation activities.
The winner of the prestigious Tom Peter Memorial Mine Reclamation award for 2013 was Goldcorp’s Porcupine Gold Mines (PGM) for its work on the Hollinger Tailings Management Area in Timmins. This marks the second time Goldcorp’s PGM operation has earned this honour. In 2011, it won this award for rehabilitation work on the Coniaurum property in the Timmins area.
PGM started its preliminary plans for the Hollinger site rehabilitation in 2008 and the first phase of work on the project began in the Spring of 2009. Much of the reclamation activities involved the relocation of tailings, dredging to better handle drainage, re-vegetation and treating water in Gillies’ Pond. The company worked closely with the Mattagami Region Conservation Authority (MRCA) and the Timmins Snowmobile Club on the Hollinger site.
Throughout the course of progress being made on this reclamation project, Goldcorp provided an information centre and regularly provided site tours to the public, government officials, private groups and the media. “Once all is said and done, we’re hoping that in the next year, we can actually expand the MRCA walking trail to come through here,” said Rick Francouer, PGM’s Senior Environmental Coordinator.
The award and clean-up is proof that Goldcorp can do its mining work and then do the reclamation work in a responsible manner, PGM’s Environmental Manager Laszlo Gotz told Timmins Today.
Mr. Peters was a pioneer in the field of mine reclamation and a founding member of the CLRA, which was established in 1975. Mr. Peters died in 2007. He enjoyed a lengthy and successful career at Vale’s predecessor company Inco where he led the company’s tailings re-vegetation and land reclamation programs. He played a major role in the re-greening of Sudbury and was awarded a honourary degree from Laurentian University in recognition of that significant contribution.
While Goldcorp won the industry component of Tom Peters Memorial Mine Reclamation Award, University of Waterloo graduate student Kendra O’Neill won the academic component. For her thesis paper “Minesite Use for Tourism in the Diversification of Mine Reliant Communities,” she gained a $5,000 scholarship, which is sponsored by Vale.
The OMA and CLRA have held this mine reclamation conference in a variety of communities across Ontario in the past. Previous locations for the workshops have been Kirkland Lake (2008), Timmins (2009), Elliot Lake (2010), Sudbury (2011) and Thunder Bay (2012).
The purpose of these mine rehabilitation conferences is to encourage the pursuit of excellence in mine reclamation, share knowledge, information and research results and to share best practices. It is also to promote a better understanding of the outstanding achievements in mine reclamation to Ontario’s mining industry, the environmental community and the broader public.