Polaris zinc mine was a former

underground mine Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic vi ...

Little Cornwallis Island Little Cornwallis Island is one of the Canadian Arctic islands in Nunavut, Canada. It is located at 75°30'N 96°30'W, between Cornwallis Island and Bathurst Island in McDougall Sound, and measures . It is uninhabited. Little Cornwallis Island ...

in the

Canadian territory Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British Nort ...

Nunavut Nunavut ( , ; iu, ᓄᓇᕗᑦ , ; ) is the largest and northernmost territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the '' Nunavut Act'' and the '' Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act'' ...

(

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...

prior to Nunavut's official separation). The Polaris

zinc Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodic t ...

mine was located north of the Arctic Circle, and north of the community of

Resolute Resolute may refer to: Geography * Resolute, Nunavut, Canada, a hamlet * Resolute Bay, Nunavut * Resolute Mountain, Alberta, Canada Military operations * Operation Resolute, the Australian Defence Force contribution to patrolling Australia's Ex ...

. The Polaris mine closed in July 2002 following more than twenty years of zinc production.

History

In 1964

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. Th ...

-based

Cominco Teck Resources Limited, known as Teck Cominco until late 2008, is a diversified natural resources company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, that is engaged in mining and mineral development, including coal for the steelmaking indust ...

optioned In the film industry, an option is a contractual agreement pertaining to film rights between a potential film producer (such as a movie studio, a production company, or an individual) and the author of source material, such as a book, play, or s ...

all the mineral claims in Canada's

Arctic The Arctic ( or ) is a polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada ( Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm ( Greenland), Finland, Iceland ...

that were controlled by Bankaro Mines. Mineral and economic assessments resulted in a 23 million ton reserve at a zinc grade of 14.1 per cent. Approval of the project was obtained in 1979, then

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

Joe Clark Charles Joseph Clark (born June 5, 1939) is a Canadian statesman, businessman, writer, and politician who served as the 16th prime minister of Canada from 1979 to 1980. Despite his relative inexperience, Clark rose quickly in federal polit ...

waived environmental assessment hearings and pledged to ship half of the concentrate from the mine in the federally owned

icebreaker An icebreaker is a special-purpose ship or boat designed to move and navigate through ice-covered waters, and provide safe waterways for other boats and ships. Although the term usually refers to ice-breaking ships, it may also refer to sma ...

MV Arctic MV ''Arctic'' was an icebreaker, icebreaking cargo ship built in 1978 at the Port Weller Dry Docks in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. The ship was owned and operated by the Fednav Group. ''Arctic'' was sold for recycling in Aliağa, Turkey in Apr ...

. The entire

mineral processing In the field of extractive metallurgy, mineral processing, also known as ore dressing, is the process of separating commercially valuable minerals from their ores. History Before the advent of heavy machinery the raw ore was broken up using ...

plant, power plant and workshop were built upon a barge and travelled from

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is ...

to the mine site. In 1981 the mine commenced production. The Polaris mine employed over 250 people. Although only 20 mine employees were from northern Canada, thirty percent of employment in Resolute was directly related to the mine.

Production

The Polaris mine produced over 21 million tonne of lead-zinc ore during the life of the mine, with a market value of over $1.5 billion. Concentrate from the mining operation was stored in a long warehouse, which was the largest structure in Nunavut.

Closure

Initially the mine was scheduled to close in 2001, however due to improved mining techniques, the mine life was extended one year to 2002. Reclamation procedures following the closure of the Polaris mine set a new standard for

mine closure Mine closure is the period of time when the ore-extracting activities of a mine have ceased, and final decommissioning and mine reclamation are being completed. It is generally associated with reduced employment levels, which can have a significa ...

in the territory of Nunavut. Reclamation of the mine site began while the mine was still operating, this work was planned to ensure it would not have an adverse effect on the mining operation (such as removal of unused buildings). Cominco intended to bury most of the buildings and materials in a nearby

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mining, open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock (geology), rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some juri ...

, with the

permafrost Permafrost is ground that continuously remains below 0 °C (32 °F) for two or more years, located on land or under the ocean. Most common in the Northern Hemisphere, around 15% of the Northern Hemisphere or 11% of the global surfac ...

preventing contamination. Cominco offered the staff accommodations to the

federal government A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-govern ...

for use as a

penal colony A penal colony or exile colony is a settlement used to exile prisoners and separate them from the general population by placing them in a remote location, often an island or distant colonial territory. Although the term can be used to refer t ...

on the island. Household items were offered to residents of nearby

Inuit Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, ...

communities. Cleanup of the Polaris mine site took two years, with environmental monitoring until 2011.

References

{{Reflist, refs= {{cite news , url = https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=720&dat=19880706&id=qwQxAAAAIBAJ&sjid=5-EFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2149,197881&hl=en , title = Background on Free Trade and the Canadian Mining Industry , publisher = Val d'or Star , date = 1988-07-06 , page = 19 , access-date = 2016-02-24 , quote = The Northwest Territories boast two of the world's most northerly mines; Polaris on Little Cornwallis Island and Nanisivik on Baffin Island. Both are Lead and Zinc mines. Zinc mines in Canada Lead mines in Canada Mines in Nunavut Former mines in Canada Former populated places in the Qikiqtaaluk Region

History

Production

Closure

See also

References