Photo by Photo Submitted
Dr. Norbert Morgenstern
Globally renowned expert to study mine proposal
The executive committee of the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board has hired an expert to assist with the review of the Casino mine proposal.
The executive committee of the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board has hired an expert to assist with the review of the Casino mine proposal.
The board announced today it has engaged the services of Dr. Norbert Morgenstern, the chair of the Mount Polley Review Panel, to provide expert advice related to the proposed Casino mine tailings management facility and dam.
Casino Mining Corp. (CMC) is proposing to construct, operate, decommission and remediate a copper, gold, silver and molybdenum mine located approximately 150 km northwest of Carmacks and 300 km from Whitehorse.
The tailings dam would be one of the world’s largest.
It would be unique on a global scale, being built in a northern environment and climate in discontinuous permafrost conditions.
The dam will eventually retain 956 million tonnes of tailings and 658 million tonnes of waste rock.
The Little Salmon-Carmacks First Nation has also retained an international engineer firm to review the dam proposal.
A report provided to the assessment board last fall indicated BCG Engineering Inc. found “significant issues with the project proposal” and recommended the First Nations obtain answers to 82 specific questions.
The report notes the dam would be 286 metres high – more than 15 times the height of the law courts building on Second Avenue in Whitehorse.
It would the third-highest dam in the world. There’s nothing currently to compare the design to, so there’s nothing to test the design against, says the report.
The failure of the tailings dam at the Mount Polley Mine in B.C. in August 2014 triggered an environmental disaster.
The Mount Polley Review Panel was created to determine why the failure occurred. It delivered its report to the B.C. government in January.
Dr. Morgenstern is recognized as one of the world’s pre-eminent civil engineers.
His unparalleled achievements as an educator, researcher and consulting engineer are internationally renowned.
He has more than 300 research publications that concentrate on geotechnical aspects of permafrost engineering, dams, mine waste management, numerical modeling of geotechnical structures, progressive ground failure, landslides and risk analysis.
His research has made a significant contribution to the practice of geotechnical engineering around the world.
Add your comments or reply via Twitter @whitehorsestar
In order to encourage thoughtful and responsible discussion, website comments will not be visible until a moderator approves them. Please add comments judiciously and refrain from maligning any individual or institution. Read about our user comment and privacy policies.
Your name and email address are required before your comment is posted. Otherwise, your comment will not be posted.
Comments (6)
Up 2 Down 1
Just Say'in on Apr 26, 2015 at 12:34 am
To the last guy. Get your own handle, you are making me look bad. haha
Up 17 Down 3
Just Sayin' on Apr 25, 2015 at 12:20 pm
Perhaps this gentleman could take a look a the mess YTG and abandoned mines has created at the Faro Mine Complex and how no remediation has occurred at this site in years. The tailing is massive and a mess. If our own government cannot re-mediate a site how can we expect a private sector coming to do the same.
Up 8 Down 13
Just Say'in on Apr 24, 2015 at 7:25 pm
Don't freak out so much people. It will very likely never happen anyway. It is a stock market play. It may leave a bunch of money in the Yukon while they do all of this fact finding and research but it will never happen. Quit looking under the bed for the Boogie Man.
Up 23 Down 16
Sally Wright on Apr 24, 2015 at 2:41 pm
Casino Mine is one of the longest standing Boogie Mines in recent Yukon history. The mineral grade is so diluted, the energy needs are double of the whole Territory and the ridiculous size of the tailings dam amount to irresponsible development.
Now we the tax payer have to pay for this stupid idea's regulatory review. Casino is aptly named, this is one big gamble and we'll all lose if it is allowed to happen.
I worry with the S-6 amendments to YESSA, YESAB will be crippled and unable to properly evaluate Casino's many risks.
From my research on energy issues in the Yukon, this mine has always been brought up to freak stakeholders out about our energy future. The push for LNG, a mega dam on the Stewart or Pelly and even a Mini-nuclear power station. It would not surprise me one bit if there was some kind of oil company behind it.
Up 31 Down 22
Jim Lahey on Apr 22, 2015 at 10:09 pm
3rd largest in the world? Permafrost? Gee, what could go wrong? YTG should just hire the owners of Wolervine for advice. They should be eligible for the friends discount. advice
Cue carnival music.
Up 34 Down 10
You need to smell the coffee and wake up on this one on Apr 22, 2015 at 5:08 pm
Absolutely insane. This dam and the refuse it will hold back will make the Mount Polley mine dam look like a small toy. They aren't sure why Mount Polley failed but some say maybe due to glacial till under the dam which was 'not accounted for'. How many 'not accounted fors' are we going to have in the Yukon?
We have two mines in the Yukon right now who's owners have simply walked away because they are not making as much money as they expected to. They are losing money, so they are outta here. They could not care less about maintaining the properties. But Casino will be different! They promise!
Having a dam taller than the Hoover Dam outside Las Vegas, just outside Carmacks and beside the Yukon River, holding back a slurry of tailings ... what could go wrong?
Well, here's what happened at the comparatively tiny Mount Polley Mine:
"The contaminated slurry carried felled trees; mud and debris scoured away the banks of Hazeltine Creek ...caused Polley Lake to rise by 5 feet... Hazeltine Creek was transformed into a "wasteland"* ... a slurry of toxic water and mud continued to pour into the once pristine Quesnel Lake, once the cleanest deep water lake in the world. Mine safety experts and media articles have called the spill one of the biggest environmental disasters in modern Canadian history while British Columbia’s government initially insisted the dam failure was not an environmental disaster. A position Mary Polak, B.C.’s environment minister changed in November 2014."