Ontario’s gold miners hardest hit by MISA

Ontario’s Municipal/Industrial Strategy for Abatement (MISA) will become law June 1. Affected mining companies will begin monitoring liquid wastes discharged to the environment from their mining and milling operations beginning Nov 1, 1989.

The jump in sampling activity is expected to create at least 84 new jobs in northern Ontario, according to a document prepared jointly by the Ontario Mining Association and the Ontario government. The document examines the economic impact of the program which is expected to cost the industry from $19 million to $32 million.

The average cost per mining operation ranges from $220,000 to $380,000.

For gold mining companies, the sector upon which MISA is expected to have the greatest impact, the capital and operating cost of monitoring effluent from a single source is estimated to range from $72,860 to $171,560 a year. Some companies have more than one source to monitor.

Small gold mining companies which reported relatively low profits in 1988 and which have more than one sampling point to monitor will be hardest hit. They include Agnico-Eagle Mines (TSE) which has six sources of effluent in Ontario (from silver operations), Canamax Resources (TSE) with five and Muscocho Explorations (TSE) with three.

For large companies, such as Inco Ltd. (TSE), Noranda Inc. (TSE), Rio Algom Ltd. (TSE), Placer Dome Inc. (TSE) and Falconbridge Ltd. (TSE), the added capital and operating costs will be insignificant compared to annual capital expenditures.

No mine closures are expected to result from the added capital and operating costs required by each operation to comply with the program. And exploration and development projects are exempt.

Already, a number of consulting companies have sprung up and analytical labs are adding new equipment to handle the anticipated influx of water samples.

Starting in November, companies will collect data on their own effluent for a period of 12 months. Then the provincial Ministry of the Environment (MOE) will use that information to draft new regulations limiting various toxic components of mine effluent.

The most critical component for the province’s gold mines is cyanide.

“The process of formulating new regulations should take from two to three months (after the 12-month testing period),” says John Hawley, senior sector specialist for the MOE. “The final limits regulations will look very much like those of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. There will be daily maximums and 30-day average regulations.”

“The 2-mg-per-L total cyanide limit will drop to about 1.5 mg per L,” Hawley says, “and we’ll probably introduce a so-called WAD (Weak Acid Dissociable) cyanide regulation. It will probably be set at about 0.1-0.5 mg per L (of effluent released).”

The MISA program is part of a wide-ranging government strategy which began in December, 1986. It is designed to stop water pollution at its source.

Mining is just one of many industries affected by the program.

Ten meetings of 30 people from government and industry were held over the past two years. The consensus that resulted from those meetings has been open to public comment since Feb 23.

Four sources of liquid wastes will be sampled: mine water, overflow from tailings areas, storm water and smelter/refinery effluent. Most mines in the province have only one source of effluent.

Companies have 60 days to report results of tests conducted weekly and monthly and up to 90 days to report results from tests conducted quarterly. All results must be supplied on floppy discs, supplied by the government. The information will become immediately available to the public upon release to the government. Any violations will cost the companies up to $50,000 per day, although what constitutes a violation has not been determined yet.

“No government grants are contemplated at this point” to assist companies to comply with the regulations,” Hawley says.

To ensure all mines use the same analytical procedure when testing for cyanide, the OME is producing a videotape which will be distributed to all gold mines.

About five different chemical processes for treating cyanide-rich effluent have been available commercially for about five years. But cyanide can also be destroyed by ultraviolet light from the sun when exposed in large, shallow tailings ponds.

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