SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - After hearing the mayor say there is no question temperatures beneath Con Mine are as hot as 38 C, a former senior planning engineer from the mine has come forward "to get the facts straight."

Mike Borden, who worked at Con Mine for 23 years and now works as the mine manager for the Deton'Cho/Nuna Joint Venture at Giant Mine, said no one has ever found the mine to reach that temperature, let alone anything higher.

"Those numbers don't exist," said the certified engineering technologist.

Borden said he hasn't been able to come forward with this information before now because of an emergency involving a family member.

"I'm not saying it (geothermal energy) won't work at lower temperatures," he said. "I'm just saying we need to get the facts straight."

To prove his statements, Borden pointed to a 16-year study published by the Journal of Hydrology in 2000. The study, which began in 1980 and ended in 1996, was conducted to determine the viability of disposing radioactive waste at the mine.

Included in it, is a chart that lays out the groundwater temperatures at different depths, with the highest recorded temperature reaching 26 C at 5,300 feet.

The city needs to know the temperature of the water beneath the now-defunct mine to ensure the viability of the Con Mine community energy system, which aims to use geothermal heat from underneath the mine to fuel the system - at least partially.

"The studies have already been done that show that it's there and it's warm," said Mayor Gord Van Tighem, referring to feasibility studies conducted by Mory Ghomshei, a mining engineering professor at the University of British Columbia.

Ghomshei went down into the mine in 1986 and noticed heat emanating from the rocks. While in the shaft, he measured the temperature from the surrounding rock and recorded it as being 38 C.

"I've been in that mine and I've measured the temperature and it was supposed to be 24 C, but it was much hotter, the temperature was much higher," Ghomshei said on the phone from Vancouver Thursday.

In the final feasibility report for the project, which Ghomshei helped write, mine temperatures are laid out in a chart. The city has taken the feasibility report off its website, and has replaced it with an investment analysis report with different charts.

At 2,300 feet, the feasibility report says the earth temperature is 22 C, while in the hydrology report, it says the recorded groundwater temperature is 11 C.

At 4,900 feet, the city's chart says the temperature is expected to be 42 C, while the hydrology report says the recorded temperature is 23.3 C.

"You think I know the difference between 20 C and 40 C?" asked Borden. "You betcha I know the difference."

Ghomshei said the mine temperature hasn't been tested since he was in the shaft in 1986.

Bob Long, the city's senior administrator, said that is one of the things the city needs to verify before making the final decision to move forward with the project.

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