Dane Gibson
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jun 16/99) - While community leaders are looking to the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development to take responsibility for the arsenic at Giant Mine, DIAND says it's not something they're prepared to dive into blindfolded.

"It's unfortunate when people, particularly leaders, make statements saying nobody is going to be interested in the property -- it becomes a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy," regional executive advisor for DIAND Dave Nutter said.

"I would think that all of us, both at the federal and territorial level, would want to see somebody take ownership of Giant property and keep the mine in operation."

Nutter said DIAND has discussed the prospects of a Giant mine sale with interim receivers PriceWaterhouseCoopers, who are responsible for the sale of all Royal Oak assets, including the Giant property.

"It's my understanding in conversations with the interim receiver that there have been a number of companies expressing interest in the Giant property itself," Nutter said.

"There has not been, to my knowledge, any formal negotiations taking place at this point in time but companies have approached PriceWaterhouseCoopers and said they're interested in Giant mine."

That, Nutter said, is why it would be irresponsible for the federal government to come forward at this stage and accept responsibility for the arsenic clean-up, which has been conservatively estimated at $260 million.

"In answer to people who say you're never going to sell the property with that arsenic -- we're saying let's see what these companies -- who are expressing interest, have to say. Depending on how great their interest is in Giant, they might say 'Let's make a deal.'"

Nutter said patience is what's essential right now, because any commitment they make will involve taxpayer dollars.

"The arsenic itself is going to be a hurdle, it's going to be a challenge for anybody to deal with. If a company is interested in acquiring Giant but also wants to talk to DIAND about some arrangement with respect to the arsenic then we're willing to talk," Nutter said.

"But we're certainly not going to start out the conversation by saying -- don't worry about the arsenic it's totally a federal responsibility -- because right now it's totally a corporate responsibility. We're saying let's see how the discussion unfolds."

Nutter also said not dealing with the arsenic isn't acceptable to them. They want to see the arsenic dealt with but DIAND is "not jumping in with both feet and saying it has to be dealt with in the next six months."

"This is a very complex technological problem. We have a very large quantity of a toxic substance that needs to be isolated from the environment and isolated from becoming any threat to human health," Nutter said.

"While arsenic trioxide is known and has been dealt with around the world, I don't think anybody has had 260,000 tonnes of arsenic sitting underground."

He added he's confident they'll find a solution for the arsenic, but it will take a thorough environmental screening and public review to implement the solution once it's found. Until then, he said the best place for the arsenic is where it sits, in the underground stopes -- even though there is groundwater getting into some of them.

"In the last several years, studies undertaken by DIAND with Royal Oak have shown that there is more groundwater underground than we thought and the groundwater is in fact getting into some of the vaults and dissolving some of the arsenic," Nutter said.

He added that the dissolved arsenic is being picked up by pumps and treated on the surface and that ongoing testing shows the arsenic is not leeching into the water system.

Nutter said once DIAND has looked at all the input and weighed all the options, all parties involved will settle on the best solution to treat the arsenic.

"If it takes 18 months to decide on a solution then it's probably going to take at least three years to go through the environmental screening, review and regulatory approval process," Nutter said.

"So it's 2003 before you actually start treating the arsenic. I don't want to diminish in any way the significance of the arsenic sitting around Giant. The arsenic itself is a very dangerous substance, but it is contained in the vaults underground. That's the safest place to leave it."