Lessons to be learned from volatile mining industry: Keeling

[CORNER BROOK, NL] — Arn Keeling says some events happening to this province’s mining industry are symptomatic of the “cyclonic” nature of that business. The geography professor from Memorial University’s St. John’s campus was at Sir Wilfred Grenfell College Monday to discuss some of the joint research he is currently undertaking regarding mining development in northern regions of Canada.

The talk, entitled Geographies of Mining and Environmental Justice in Canada’s North, discussed the various impacts major mining projects can have on more remote areas in particular. While mining can bring prosperity, it can also leave these regions with environmental and social legacies that raise questions about whether the activity was really worth it.

The industry has been characterized as “cyclonic” because of the hustle and bustle that comes with the sudden interest and development of an area, the relative instability of the development’s life and the potential for a rapid decline of the development. Often, all that is left behind is environmental degradation and people — usually First Nations people — who have been displaced from their traditional way of life or have to leave to find employment elsewhere.

Keeling, who pointed out there are more than 10,000 abandoned or orphaned mines across Canada, has been studying the social and environmental impact in examples of such mines at Port Radium and Pine Point in Northwest Territories, Schefferville, Que. and Uranium City, Sask.

In many cases, said Keeling, aboriginal people are erased from the mining companies’ considerations.

The volatility of the mining industry, especially in times of a global economic recession, is now showing itself in Newfoundland and Labrador. Last April, the Nunatsiavut government in Labrador declared a three-year moratorium on uranium development in the area, though it still permitted exploration.

“Here you see the local community trying to, in a sense, buffer the impacts of this development and try to articulate its own concerns and interests in the potential for this development,” said Keeling.

More recently, there have been layoffs at the iron ore mine in Wabush and a five-week — which possibly may become a 13-week — shutdown at the iron ore facility in Labrador City.

“We are seeing some of the very real impacts of this volatility in the sector, but plug into this the wider and longer story and maybe we can look back at some of these historical dimensions (being researched) for some of the cautionary tales that can put some of the short-term events into perspective,” said Keeling.