History of Mining in BC

A brief history on mining practices will shed light on how we arrive at a situation where abandoned mine tailings are present throughout the Salmo Watershed and the province of BC. In the preliminary days of mining in the province, placer mining began in streams and rivers. This involved dredging up material from the riverbeds and sifting through it for gold. As the gold deposits became depleted and new technologies emerged, placer mining was slowly displaced by lode mining in the late 1800’s. A “lode” is defined as a deposit of metallic ore that has filled cracks or fissures between rocks, creating a vein or veins of ore. Lode mining allowed for the extraction of other metals from the earth from underground tunnels such as silver, copper, iron and lead. Miners would use a combination of pickaxes, hammers, and dynamite to break apart the ore-containing rocks and extract the ore. As technology advanced hand tools were replaced by power driven tools. The ore was then transported to nearby stamp mills by tram, horseback or railcars where it was crushed into a fine powder. This powder was then mixed with water and either mercury, cyanide, sulfides or other chemicals to separate the ore from the rock. The exact chemicals used in the extraction method was dependant on the target metal and on the mill where it was processed. A more detailed description of extraction procedures is outlined in the Inventory of Mine Tailings and Ponds in the Salmo Watershed report.

One commonality in all extraction methods was the creation of waste, commonly referred to as mine tailings. These tailings were laden with processing chemicals, heavy metals and remaining metals and elements. The mills and concentrators were generally located in valley bottoms near waterways to provide power, water and ease of access for workers. Tailings were then dumped along the edge or directly into waterways.

In the early days of mining the environmental impacts of mine tailings were perhaps underestimated or ignored. The economic importance of mining undoubtedly overshadowed ecological concerns until the mid-1900’s.

Impacts of mine tailings to aquatic life in the Salmo Watershed have been observed and recorded since at least 1912. Mining activities in Sheep Creek were reported to the Provincial Government in this year to have killed all the fish downstream from gold operations in Sheep Creek and the Salmo River. According to A Timeline of Mining Law and Contamination Events in British Columbia (a document produced by the UVic Environmental Law Club) a game warden was quoted as saying “It would be a very grave mistake on the part of the Department [of Fisheries] to do anything that would in any way hamper this very important industry.” In response to the claims. Despite early evidence of the harmful effects of mine tailings in the region it was not until 2007 that remediation activities began in the Salmo Watershed.

It took until 1965 for the first environmental laws surrounding mining to be enacted, beginning with operational pollution permitting being required. In 1969 the “Mines Regulation Act” was introduced requiring that all owners, agents or managers of a surface mine carry out a program to protect and reclaim disturbed land and water and complete this program when the mine was abandoned or discontinued. While this act was a step in the right direction, many mining companies had gone out of business or ceased operations by this time, leaving behind tailings and infrastructure. This led to a number of orphaned mine tailings sites scattered throughout the region and the province. As awareness of the ecological impacts of mine tailings increased, environmental laws with respect to mining and tailings management have continued to be enacted in the province of British Columbia. A detailed summary of mining laws in the province can be found in the publication “A Timeline of Mining Law and Contamination Events in British Columbia”.

Federal legislation, such as the Fisheries Act, have further increased protection of waterways from the impacts of mining by prohibiting “the deposit of all deleterious substances: into water frequented by fish, or to any place, under any conditions, where it may enter water frequented by fish”.

In 2003 the B.C. government established the Crown Contaminated Sites Program. This program aims to manage prioritized, high-risk contaminated sites on Crown land for which there is no existing responsible party, including abandoned mine tailings sites. By the government’s own admission, the program only addresses a small fraction of the contaminated sites on Crown Land in the province. With the high frequency of orphaned mines in the region, the Salmo Watershed Streamkeepers Society saw a need for organizations to assess the potential impacts and remaining value in orphaned sites not covered by the program.

While the awareness of the impacts of mining and remediation activities continue to increase across the province, there is still much to be done to remove some of this pollution from our natural environment. Innovative solutions for the remediation of mine tailings continue to be developed and researched (such as utilizing recycling methods for the metals found in the tailing) increasing the potential for remediating more sites. As our understanding of the impacts of mining grows, so too should our commitment to protecting our environment by addressing the issues associated with mine tailings.

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We wish to thank the Salmo Museum and the Salmo Valley Historical Society for graciously providing us with historic photos.
Special thanks to Gloria Currie!

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