Steady jobs, independent oversight needed with Faro mine remediation project, say First Nations – CBC

Mar 18, 2022

Environmental assessment now underway for proposal to tackle massive contaminated site

When Yukon’s Faro mine opened in 1969, Kaska elder Hammond Dick watched the once intact landscape change.

“We live there, and that’s our traditional territory,” said Dick, who lives in Watson Lake.

“What happens 500 years from now, we’ll still be there.”

Located about 200 kilometres northeast of Whitehorse, Faro was once the largest open pit, lead-zinc mine in the world, and it operated for nearly 30 years. Then, in 1998, when its owners declared bankruptcy, it was abandoned. Now, the Faro mine complex is one of Canada’s most contaminated sites, with 260 million tonnes of waste rock — enough to cover downtown Whitehorse 90 metres deep, according to the federal government.

Read More: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/yukon-faro-mine-remediation-1.6382225