Feds consider options for defunct Nunavut diamond mine

A June 2015 photo of the abandoned Jericho Diamond Mine about 350 kms south of Cambridge Bay shows the mill — the large blue building — where a pair of nuclear gauges have been stored for years, unbeknownst to the mine’s current stewards, Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada. (PHOTO COURTESY NIRB)

The Government of Canada has hired a consultant to look at “possible private sector solutions” for the defunct Jericho diamond mine in Nunavut’s Kitikmeot region.

In a Nov. 6 email to Nunatsiaq News, a spokesperson for then-Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, said the firm Deloitte LLB has been retained to “explore and facilitate potential commercialization options for Jericho. Remediation of the site is also being considered.”

In other words, the federal government may try to sell it and get it off their hands for good.

And, as the new Liberal government settles in, and senior managers get used to the new name — Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada — and a new minister, Carolyn Bennett, that plan will likely take shape in the coming months.

But in the meantime, the department has to deal with some nuclear gauges at the abandoned mine, roughly 350 kilometres south of Cambridge Bay.

The mothballed Jericho Diamond Mine at the north end of Contwoyto Lake — owned by Tahera Diamond Corp. and then Shear Diamonds (Nunavut) Corp. before it was officially abandoned in 2012 — is no longer operational and is being managed by INAC until Ottawa figures out what to do with it.

During a regular site visit this past June, lead by the Nunavut Impact Review Board — the body that monitors the site to ensure compliance with the original project certificate — several people tagged along including INAC staff and a Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission inspector.

The inspector was there to examine the state of a couple nuclear powered gauges whose Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission permit had expired.

The gauges, originally licensed to Tahera, are small devices that can be attached to mine site processing pipes so operators can determine what sorts of materials are coming down the pipe.

It’s like an X-ray for rocks and minerals, said Tara Arko, the NIRB’s director of technical services.

As INAC delves more deeply into the paperwork associated with the mine site, perhaps as a precursor to selling it, says Arko, it is discovering more and more about the site.

That’s how they found out there were nuclear gauges in storage at Jericho and that their permit had expired, Arko said.

A spokesperson from the nuclear safety commission said in correspondence with Nunatsiaq News that, according to the inspector, the “Ronan density gauges” were locked up in their original location on site and that they “posed no risk to the public or the environment.”

According to Ronan’s website, these gauges use “very small quantities of radioactive materials,” in this case, 0.9 mCi (millicurie) of cesium. The website claims that because of the low radioactive intensity used, these particular gauges are “the safest gamma gauges on the market.”

Staff at INAC have already applied to the nuclear safety commission to renew the licence for the gauges and will store them on site temporarily until they can move them in accordance with safety regulations, said the email from INAC’s Valerie Haché.

That could mean removing both devices in their entirety or just removing the nuclear components for transfer south, she said.

Meantime, the NIRB continues to monitor Jericho to ensure the abandoned site poses no risk to nearby animals, plants, water and people who may visit, Arko said.

Staff at the NIRB recently sent letters to a number of agencies, such as the federal fisheries department, to keep them informed of what’s happening at the site and to raise red flags around issues that need to be addressed.

The NIRB released its “2014-2015 Annual Monitoring Report for the Jericho Diamond Mine Project” in late October and pointed out a number of items to be dealt with including the nuclear gauges, proper containment of fuel and waste, fish habitat compensation and tailings management.

You can read the full report here.