Old tailings pond spills its banks

Heavy rains in mid-October caused an old tailings pond in northeastern Ontario belonging to Matachewan Consolidated Mines (TSE) to overflow and spill into the Montreal River, contaminating the water supply of the town of Elk Lake. The gold-mining property in Powell and Cairo twps. in the Matachewan area ceased operations in 1953.

Workers for Ontario’s ministry of natural resources acted to contain the overflow, pending a plan to undertake permanent repair work to the pond.