What's happening at Giant Mine? Spring 2024

What's new with "What's happening at Giant Mine?": Giant Mine newsletter update

The Giant Mine Remediation Project has revamped its approach to sharing information with the public.

At the start of the 2023 work season last year, the Giant Mine Remediation Project identified that we needed a faster, more efficient way of sharing urgent information of interest to the public, and created the Giant mine safety notices and work notices webpage. This allows the Project to post important urgent public information as soon as it's needed.

We will continue to produce the newsletter, but its focus will be on information whose timing is less urgent in nature. In 2024, we're aiming to share a new online newsletter with you quarterly, or once each season.

In previous years, the Project's newsletter "What's Happening at Giant Mine?" was the primary source from which the Project shared information and updates publicly on a year-round basis, including important notices. This was much easier before active remediation began in 2020.

Now that remediation work well underway at the site, the Project has a higher volume of work starting, ongoing and being completed year round and higher volumes of information to share, often with overlapping timelines!

Since our newsletter is developed over several weeks before it is posted on the Project's website, it often focuses on work that has been completed recently, and is written narratively in great detail and with photos if they are available. This will also help ensure that individual updates are posted and available as soon as they are needed, and that those posts are not delayed while waiting for details for other, more detailed and less urgent stories.

Congratulations to Yellowknife Historical Society on the opening of the new Yellowknife Historical Museum

On March 26, 2024, the Yellowknife Historical Society held the grand opening of the new Yellowknife Historical Museum! Learn more about the Yellowknife Historical Society and Yellowknife Historical Museum on their website.

Water Treatment Plant construction update

The Project has begun pouring the concrete foundation for the building and will continue to advance construction of the new Water Treatment Plant, including blasting and removing contaminated soils, installing intake wells and associated infrastructure, erection of the Water Treatment Plant steel structure, and constructing the outfall pipeline and marine outfall in Yellowknife Bay. A key milestone for construction this year will be to construct the shell of the WTP to allow for winter work inside the building. Here's a look at some of the Water Treatment Plant construction progress so far!

Remediation work near the public boat launch spring and summer 2024

As shared in our last newsletter, the project anticipates that in the summer of 2028, remediation work causing closure of the public boat launch at the Giant Mine site will start, according to the Project's current schedule. It is important to note that the Project's current anticipated schedule for remediation work is subject to change until the work has started, as much of the remediation work the Project is scheduled to complete is contingent on the completion of other work that was scheduled before it.

Visit our Giant mine safety notices and work notices webpage to review active and upcoming safety and work notices that may be of interest to the public. Questions can also be directed to the Project team by email.

This year beginning in summer 2024, nearby remediation work such as blasting could cause temporary and short-duration disruptions to access to the area.

This spring and summer, the Project is continuing construction on the new on-site Water Treatment Plant and marine outfall. This work includes blasting currently scheduled to begin in May and carry on for approximately 7 weeks.

Blasting activities are expected to cause temporary delays in access to the public boat launch area, for approximately 10 minutes per blast.

Boaters accessing the public boat launch at the Giant Mine site should be aware of trucks travelling through the area to access the site. The Project will also be completing in-water work construction work, currently scheduled to take place in July and August. In-water work will include the presence of divers and the use of heavy equipment in the water. Details regarding public safety and delays related to the in-water work scheduled for July and August will be shared and updated on our Giant mine safety notices and work notices webpage.

When enjoying activities in this area over the summer, please:

• respect in-water clearance procedures during blasting activities
• respect property boundaries and posted warning signs
• stay off of the site itself, including the townsite area near the public boat launch
• stay on the roadway or dedicated pull-outs when driving the Ingraham Trail
• use caution when near the site

For questions related to remediation work at the Giant Mine site, email the Project team.

The Government of Northwest Territories is responsible for the Giant Mine townsite and public boat launch areas during active remediation. If you have concerns, you can do so by emailing publicuse_giant_lieupublic@gov.nt.ca, or by calling (867) 767-9236 Ext 53190. For more information, visit the Giant Mine Remediation Project website.

Dust and dust suppression at the Giant Mine site

A reminder to the public that it is the time of year when more dust gets generated onsite from various activities. Further information of how the project suppresses dust can be found here:

• our webpage, Information about dust at the Giant Mine site provides information to help answer frequently asked questions we've heard related to dust
• information specifically about how the Giant Mine Remediation Project suppresses dust on site, please visit our webpage, Dust suppression

Thank you for attending the Giant Mine Remediation Project annual Public Forum!

On March 5, 2024 the Project held its annual Public Forum and hosted approximately 40 attendees in-person locally in Yellowknife, and an additional 50 virtual attendees who joined us from across Canada on Zoom.

The Project shared information about the work that was completed last year during the 2023/2024 work season, and work scheduled for this year. Unique to the past year, the Project shared a re-cap about how it handled the 2023 wildfire evacuation, and gave attendees a preview of what the Yellowknife public boat launch area will look like in various phases of the remediation project using artist's renderings.

Northwest Territories residents in the Yellowknife area were also able to experience a virtual reality tour of the site using immersive virtual and augmented reality technology at the end of the Public Forum, and at a second drop-in event, hosted at the Giant Mine Oversight Board office on March 6, 2024.

The Project has a free app called, "Giant Mine Reclamation Viewer" allows users to have a similar experience to the immersive virtual and augmented reality technology without the need for a headset or operator. The app enables users to visit the Giant Mine remediation project site in a safe and convenient way, by allowing virtual access to the restricted, contaminated site. Users can see the underground tunnels and their position in relation to the surface in 3D, and can also experience how the landscape will change after remediation. App users can also view artistic renderings of what the completed remediation should eventually look like and what the Project team continues to work toward.

To download the app, simply search, "Giant Mine Remediation Viewer" on the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.