KRG gets money to clean up mine site

Quebec will give $50,000 to the Kativik Regional Government to pay for a clean-up project at Blue Lake, an abandoned mine exploration site, 70 kilometres north of Schefferville.

“The results from this project will provide us with essential information on the methods we can use to ensure the most complete rehabilitation of abandoned mine exploration sites in the North,” said Quebec’s native affairs minister, Geoff Kelley.

Last summer, the KRG started the first phase of the clean-up, with $50,000 from Quebec. The second phase is scheduled for this summer, and will involve the demolition of structures at the site, as well as the storage or burning of garbage and other solid waste found there.

Quebec has also confirmed an additional $300,000 to support the Nunavik mining exploration fund.

Since its creation in 1998, this fund has become a resource for mining exploration companies wanting to work in Nunavik, said natural resources minister Pierre Corbeil.

“Everything tells us that 2006 will break all records in mining investments. The largest amounts of money being spent on exploration are in the Abitibi, Ungava and Nord-Du-Québec regions,” Corbeil said.