160-year-old N.S. gold mine to undergo $33M remediation

Nova Scotia's provincial flag flies on a flagpole in Ottawa on June 30, 2020.

A 160-year-old former gold mine in Nova Scotia will revert to its prior state as a productive habitat following a $33.4 million remediation effort by the federal and provincial governments.

The Montague Mines in the rural community of Montague Gold Mines, is contaminated with mercury and arsenic, according to a news release from the Department of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities. The contamination is mostly found in a 363-acre area where mine tailings were disposed.

The federal government is spending $15 million on the cleanup project while the Nova Scotia government is pitching in $18,480,000.

The cleanup work will involve excavating contaminated soils up to a depth of two metres and placing that soil in impermeable containment cells on site. Clean backfill will replace the removed soil and a treatment system will collect any leachate from the containment cells.

“It is crucial that we uphold Canada’s world-leading environmental standards by addressing the contamination on the Montague Mines site,” said Braedon Clark, MP for Sackville-Bedford-Preston, in the release. “This project will promote long-term environmental sustainability on both the site of the former mine, and downstream.”

The Montague Mines were in operation from 1865 to 1940.

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