The Province of Nova Scotia is getting to work cleaning up one of the most contaminated gold mining sites in the province later on this year.
The province also stated it had its sights set on getting to work on a second mine in 2026. Preliminary findings show that the Montague Mines and Goldenville sites do not pose an immediate public risk. However, both sites contain contaminated areas that require management. Officials completed initial conceptual closure plans in the summer of 2019. They have continued with sampling and assessments since then.
In 2022, they carried out Phase 1 and 2 Environmental Site Assessments (ESAs). Additionally, detailed remedial design work for the Montague site remains underway.
Officials have now begun consultations with Indigenous communities to help refine the final design.
Donnie Burke, senior director of the environmental group with Build Nova Scotia, told reporters Wednesday that community engagement for the Montague Gold Mines project, near Dartmouth, will begin within days.
The project should then go to tender next month.
“I’m quite confident that you’ll see boots on the ground and construction happening in Montague this year,” he said.
Burke spoke after appearing before the legislature’s public accounts committee to address the auditor general’s report on contaminated sites.
Officials first announced plans for the cleanup in 2018. Burke said progress has been slow partly due to the size of the property.
“Some of these are maybe a city block and some of them are seven city blocks. So it’s like anything in construction — the bigger it is, the longer it takes,” he said.
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People frequently visit the sites for recreation
Burke said crews will build a containment cell about half a hectare in size, designed to blend into the natural surroundings. It will include capping material to prevent leakage.
The work could take up to three years to complete, followed by long-term monitoring.
Burke also noted that people frequently visit the sites for hiking and ATV use.
“Some of these tailings have, like, 14 or 16 per cent arsenic in the tailings, so we want to make sure it’s contained, confined and managed in a proper way that’s environmentally friendly both to human health and ecological health.”
A similar approach is underway at the former mine site in Goldenville, near Sherbrooke. Burke said the process will take about the same amount of time as Montague but is about a year behind due to early work on private property.
The impacted area at Goldenville spans between 500 and 600 hectares.
First Nation consultation is also ongoing for a third site—the former celestite mine in Lake Enon, Cape Breton. Once consultation wraps up, that project will move to tender.
Because the Lake Enon site is smaller, Burke said construction there should only take about a year.
In total, the province has identified 68 former mine sites for remediation.
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Montague dates back to 1860s
The Montague Gold Mines site was first mined in the 1860s during Nova Scotia’s early gold rush era. Several small operations worked the area over the decades, with intermittent mining continuing into the early 20th century. Historical records indicate that various companies and individual miners were involved, rather than a single dominant company.
One notable period of activity occurred in the late 1930s and early 1940s, when the Montague Gold Mines Company operated there. Like many historical gold mines in Nova Scotia, the Montague site used mercury and arsenic-based processing methods, which contributed to the contamination issues identified today.
The most recent government financial update puts the total cleanup liability for all known contaminated sites in the province at roughly $600 million. More than half of that is tied to the planned work at Boat Harbour.
For abandoned mine sites, the estimated liability sits at about CAD$148 million. Additionally, the government has allocated CAD$64.5 million to Goldenville and Montague.
For the remaining sites, officials estimate cleanup costs at CAD$5 million each for high-risk areas. Medium-risk sites are budgeted at CAD$500,000, while low-risk sites are pegged at CAD$250,000 per project.
Officials told MLAs at the committee that they review and update cleanup figures for abandoned mine sites each year.
Further, officials said containment measures will still be required even though some sites may undergo full remediation.
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