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A preliminary study was undertaken to determine post-mining baseline accumulation of selected trace metals, and histopathological alterations in free-living arctic hares (Lepus arcticus) inhabiting the vicinity of a former lead-zi...
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A preliminary study was undertaken to determine post-mining baseline accumulation of selected trace metals, and histopathological alterations in free-living arctic hares (Lepus arcticus) inhabiting the vicinity of a former lead-zinc mine located on North Baffin Island in the Canadian High Arctic Trace metal analysis included measurement of As, Cd, Fe, Pb and Zn in tissues, and histopathological assessment comprised of evaluation and scoring the severity of metal-induced hepatic and renal lesions. Metal contents in hepatic and renal tissues from hares from the mine area compared with the reference locations did not differ significantly suggesting that the animals are not uniformly exposed to background levels of metals in the environment. However, relatively higher accumulation pattern of Pb and Cd were noted in liver tissues of hare from the mine area compared to the background area, but did not induce increased lesions. Surface soils near the mine area contained relatively higher levels of trace metals (Zn ＞ Mn ＞ Pb ＞ Cd ＞ As) compared to reference soils, and with soil levels of Cd showing strong correlation with Cd accumulation in kidney tissues. Generally, both case and reference animals showed similar but varying severities of hepatic and renal lesions at the sublethal level, notably vascular congestion, occasional large hepatocyte nuclei, binucleate hepatocytes, yellow-brown pigmentation in the cytoplasm of hepatocytes and clustering of lymphocytes. Only hares with relatively higher accumulation of Pb from the mine area showed evidence of renal edema and hemorrhage of the capsular surface. This study constitutes the first assessment of metal induced histopathological alterations in arctic hares exposed to a historical mining area in the high arctic.
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Alaska's Red Dog Mine is strengthening its position within Cominco's "Vision 2000" strategic plan by continually improving quality and quantity of production while reducing costs. Red Dog has evolved into a stable and mature opera...
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Alaska's Red Dog Mine is strengthening its position within Cominco's "Vision 2000" strategic plan by continually improving quality and quantity of production while reducing costs. Red Dog has evolved into a stable and mature operation, after six years of milling experience. A high grade, partially oxidized ore body in the severe Arctic environment, along with competing producers in a volatile metals market, are the continuing challenges facing Red Dog. The Red Dog Mine is striving to meet these challenges with emphasis on operator training combined with creative systems development and increased production. This paper describes developments in operations along with future plans.
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This paper is a practical overview of ways to reduce cost in the design and operation of an Arctic mine. The economically important issues of the Arctic mine that will be addressed include: permafrost ad the active zone in general...
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This paper is a practical overview of ways to reduce cost in the design and operation of an Arctic mine. The economically important issues of the Arctic mine that will be addressed include: permafrost ad the active zone in general terms; road building in and over permafrost; Arctic geotechnical mine design considerations; pit dewatering techniques in subzero temperatures; and blasting frozen materials with techniques to obtain optimal results. A final section on a few special topics conclude this paper.Although this paper primarily refers to near surface conditions more closely associated to an Arctic surface mine, many of the ideas and techniques contained in the paper also apply to the surface construction of an Arctic underground mine.
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This article presents a model for business continuity capacity, which shows how organizations
can analyze possible gaps in their business continuity capability and thereby
increase their capacity to recover value-adding critical...
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This article presents a model for business continuity capacity, which shows how organizations
can analyze possible gaps in their business continuity capability and thereby
increase their capacity to recover value-adding critical activities. Using an example
of a flooded mine on Svalbard, the study investigated how the mining company Store
Norske Spitsbergen Coal Company (SNSK), with considerable experience with similar
events and an excellent safety record, could fail to manage a well-known event and
reduce recovery times of its critical activities. The analysis explored how experience
in safety and incident management does not necessarily mean that these abilities are
transferable to a new but similar event. The study sought to answer the research question:
To what extent does SNSK’s systematic work with safety, and experience with
flooding events, improve business continuity capacity?
In the Arctic, emergency response can take hours or days to arrive after the event.
A structured recovery system can support pre-existing platforms aimed at safety, to
include the critical activities needed to ensure an organization’s overall survival. Systematic
work can improve performance and make the organization engage in a virtuous
cycle by implementing management structures, risk identification systems, competency
development, and processes for the in situ evaluation of hazards. However, as seen here,
the organization needs to pay attention to changes that could affect risk assessments and
threat levels well-known events. These insights can be utilized by other organizations
seeking synergy when strengthening their safety and business continuity performance.
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The pace at which mining will occur in Northern regions and Arctic lands will depend on the answers to a number of questions. Who are the local aboriginal participants? What are their objectives? What is their understanding of the...
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The pace at which mining will occur in Northern regions and Arctic lands will depend on the answers to a number of questions. Who are the local aboriginal participants? What are their objectives? What is their understanding of the process of mining development? This paper will focus on the last question, communicating the process of mineral development to local aboriginal communities.
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Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is recognized as important to fostering sustainable natural resource development in the Circumpolar North. Governments are playing an increasingly active role in promoting and shaping CSR init...
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Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is recognized as important to fostering sustainable natural resource development in the Circumpolar North. Governments are playing an increasingly active role in promoting and shaping CSR initiatives, often in collaboration with Indigenous communities and industry. This paper explores the role of CSR in mining for improving socio-economic and environmental management practice. The article argues that government instituted regulations can lead to the development and implementation of CSR practices by mining companies. To examine the relationship between government requirements and CSR, we use two Northern case studies: Cameco Corporation's uranium mining operations located in Saskatchewan, Canada and Northern Iron's iron mining operation located in Troms and Finnmark county, Norway. Through an in-depth review of scholarly literature, document analysis, and semi-structured interviews, our findings suggest that the role of the state in the initiation and implementation of CSR is of much greater importance than is currently acknowledged in the literature. In the case of Cameco, the Mine Surface Lease Agreements agreed to by the corporation and the provincial government provided motivation for the development and implementation of their world-renowned CSR practices, resulting in a community-based environmental monitoring program and benefits for both the company and surrounding communities. With Northern Iron's operations in Kirkenes, working hour requirements instituted by the Norwegian Government allowed for significantly higher levels of local employment. Our findings suggest a greater role exists for government to facilitate the adoption of CSR policies, contributing in turn to improved socio-economic and environmental outcomes for Northern communities.
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This review provides an overview of environmental studies and monitoring at mine sites in Greenland since the first environmental studies were conducted in the early 1970s. Mining at three legacy mine sites in Greenland (Ivittuut,...
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This review provides an overview of environmental studies and monitoring at mine sites in Greenland since the first environmental studies were conducted in the early 1970s. Mining at three legacy mine sites in Greenland (Ivittuut, Mestersvig and Maarmorilik) caused significant metal pollution, mostly with lead and zinc, due to lack of adequate environmental studies and regulation. These legacy mine sites have later served as study areas for development of methods for environmental monitoring, which can also be applied to other sites. The review describes the most significant mines in Greenland's mining history together with procedures for conducting the environmental monitoring work. A comprehensive description is provided on the research results and development of monitoring practices during the past 50 years for assessing dispersion, bioaccumulation and toxicological effects of pollutants in both the marine and terrestrial environment. Further, the current practices for sample preparation, chemical analyses and storage of samples and data are described. From the studies it is clear that monitoring needs to be site- and mine-specific, adaptive, diverse and take conditions unique to the Arctic into account, such as permafrost, seasonal drainage and fjord stratification dynamics. Based on the results, lessons learned for future monitoring programs are given. Moreover, spatial and temporal trends of the legacy pollution at the Greenland mine sites are discussed. Finally, it is shown how research and monitoring results have been applied to regulate mining activities in Greenland to minimise the environmental impact, and some future perspectives are presented. Many of the results and conclusions in the review are considered applicable to environmental monitoring of mining and other industrial activities in other areas than Greenland, both inside and outside of the Arctic.
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This paper addresses how business continuity (BC) management can be utilised in the Arctic using mining companies in Greenland as an example. The increase in industrial activity in the region has fostered a demand for knowledge of...
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This paper addresses how business continuity (BC) management can be utilised in the Arctic using mining companies in Greenland as an example. The increase in industrial activity in the region has fostered a demand for knowledge of how to overcome events affecting safety and value-adding critical activities. The study investigates four mining operations in Greenland which are either in production, under construction or in the planning phase, and how they identify risks of business disruption. The study focuses on answering the research question: What application is there for BC to support value-adding critical activities for mining operations in Greenland? The findings show that mining companies address uncertainties by engaging in initiatives focused on individually identified risks, building infrastructure and applying a redundancy strategy for mitigation. The paper discusses how mining companies can manage the complexity of the Arctic context and interdependencies of risk events by utilising organisational capabilities and competencies. The argument is that a BC approach improves the identification, mitigation and planning for risk and safety-related events which can potentially disrupt value chain activities.
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Metal pollution from mining activities is a well-known environmental concern, and detailed environmental monitoring before, during, and after mining is essential to evaluate the contamination status of a mining area. We therefore ...
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Metal pollution from mining activities is a well-known environmental concern, and detailed environmental monitoring before, during, and after mining is essential to evaluate the contamination status of a mining area. We therefore investigated the use of Arctic wolf spiders as a potential monitoring organism for metal contamination. In the Arctic, spiders are the most abundant group of terrestrial predators, with documented abilities to accumulate metals. In Greenland however, most contamination studies in relation to mining have targeted the marine environment, with less attention given to the terrestrial. Following a distance transect (0-40 km) near the former Black Angel Pb-Zn-mine, Maarmorilik, West-Greenland, we collected samples of two species of wolf spiders (Pardosa glacialis and P. groenlandica), along with supporting samples from soil and lichens, and analyzed these for geochemical elements using Q-ICP-MS and DMA. We show that metal concentrations in spiders generally reflect the contamination trend of the area, i.e. decreasing concentrations with increasing distance from the old mine, but also that large differences in bioaccumulation efficiency occurs between elements (Ag > Cd > Zn > Cu > Hg > Pb). We also found larger differences between juvenile and adult (female) spiders than between species. Adults generally contained higher concentrations than juveniles, suggesting that distinguishing between age classes of spiders is critical in future assessments of the environmental contamination status using spiders as bioindicator- and biomonitoring organisms. Although further studies are needed, we conclude that, especially in the case of Ag and Cd, Arctic wolf spiders are show a promising biomonitor of metal contamination near Arctic mine sites and elsewhere.
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Impact of acid mine drainage (AMD) from a coal mine waste rock pile deposited within a permafrost-affected Arctic ecosystem was investigated near Longyearbyen (Svalbard, 78° N). Analyses included metal concentrations (Al, Fe, Mn,...
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Impact of acid mine drainage (AMD) from a coal mine waste rock pile deposited within a permafrost-affected Arctic ecosystem was investigated near Longyearbyen (Svalbard, 78° N). Analyses included metal concentrations (Al, Fe, Mn, Zn, Ni, Cr, As and Pb) in runoff, soil and plants. It was observed that impacts of AMD, such as plant degradation, were similar to impacts reported from non-arctic ecosystems. It was found that bio-available metal concentrations in soil samples were not useful in assessing potential plant toxicity, as metals were not accumulated in the most impacted area due to low soil pH (pH < 4). Native graminoid plants in the high impacted area showed accumulation of all the investigated elements. Al, Mn and As were found at phyto-toxic concentrations. Metal uptake in two native graminoid plants was studied in the laboratory. Positive correlations were noted between metal concentrations and plant uptake for all metals investigated, except Fe. High Fe concentrations found in plant samples in the impacted area are considered a result of Fe-oxide precipitation (plaque) on leaves during the spring flush when runoff covers the plants. We conclude that the weathering products Al, Mn and Fe induce the largest negative impact on vegetation in the area, and that a major fraction of the annual uptake of metals occurs during spring flushes. During these flushes, metals produced from weathering processes throughout the winter are released in high concentrations, coinciding with low pH values, low infiltration rates due to permafrost and the start of the plant growth season.
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