Giant Mine Remediation Project

Province: Northwest Territories

City/Region: Yellowknife

Image Credit: PSPC

76

Project Rank

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Project End: 2038

Project Type: Remediation

Industry Sector: Other

Project Amount: $934 million

Date of Completion: 2038

Funding Source: Public

Federal Funding: $$934 million

Previous Rankings

202576
202467
202367
202264
202155
202057
201959
201857
201753
201653
201554

About The Project

Between 1948 and 2004, operations at the Giant Mine site grew to encompass roughly 900 hectares, including several ponds and small lakes. In 1999, the former operator entered receivership and the Government of Canada, and the Government of Northwest Territories became responsible for the site. Mining operations continued until 2004. Several environmental and site remediation needs were identified. This included cleaning up the 237,000 tonnes of arsenic trioxide dust left behind in underground chambers and 16 million tonnes of tailings, open pits, debris, and site infrastructure. Today, the project’s goals are to: minimize public health and safety risks; minimize the release of contaminants from the site to the surrounding environment; remediate the site in a manner that instills public confidence; and implement a remediation approach that is cost-effective and robust.

Financing Detail: Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC) requested the Audit and Evaluation Sector (AES) conduct a value-for-money audit of the remediation project to examine the ability of a government organization to discharge its responsibilities and control their costs by ensuring resources are managed economically. In this analysis, total project costs were estimated at $934 million thought 2025. (Beyond 2025, the government estimated there would be $1.98 billion in operations and maintenance costs through 2137.)

Project Owner: The Government of Canada (led by Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada with support from Public Service and Procurement Canada) and the Government of the Northwest Territories (led by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources)

Project/Construction Manager: Parsons

Engineer: AECOM; Golder (WSP) (multi-disciplinary consulting services/general and civil design)

Environmental Services: Dillon Consulting; SLR; Blumetric

Other Key Players: SRK Consulting; Wood (WSP) (consulting engineer/risk advisor); Hatch; KPMG (commercial advisor); SRK Consulting; Arcadis-IBI Group; Tiree/Colliers Project Leaders (management consultant); McElhanney (site surveyor); Englobe; Stratos; Turner & Townsend (cost consultant); Nahanni Construction Ltd., QM Environmental Inc. (Off-Site Borrow); Midlite Construction Ltd. (New Power Supply Lines and Substations); Stantec (technical consultant)

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