Years ago, a canadian geologist reported finding a huge deposit of essentially pure iron ore on Baffin Island. There are indications of major oil deposits, coal, etc., in the canadian artic, and greenland has begun mining gold. How long will it be before there is full-scale mining and mineral extraction in the artic regions?Coal has been mined in the Spitsbergen Archipelago for over 100 years…is there any oil there
Why shouldn’t mineral resources be mined?
There is currently a ‘diamond rush’ happening in Nunavut/NWT/yukon at the moment.
Diavik Mining opened a diamond mine in 2003 300km northeast of Yellowknife. Although it is a small mine by world standards, it contains a higher-than-average quantity of quality diamonds. The only way to drive supplies into this mine is on an ‘ice highway’ that is only open in winter. The rest of the time, air is the only way to go.
Source: Diavik
In 1999, Nunavut had two zinc-lead mines in operation:: the Polaris and the Nanisivik. The Polaris is the world’s most northerly mine and is located on Little Cornwallis Island. The mines were opened in 1976 and 1981 respectively and both are closing soon.
Source: Natural Resources Canada
There is currently much diamond exploration going on in Nunavut and plans to open a mine in the near future.
After re-reading this and realizing it’s in GD, what is the debate here? Do you not think northern natural resources should be exploited?
I also fail to see the Great Debate involved. Canada’s North has been a source of gold for many years, and then zinc, oil, and diamonds. There are no people living in the areas currently being mined, and extensive environmental impact studies are done before the first shovel of dirt is overturned.
The only obstacle to mining the REALLY far North is the remoteness of it. When you get up to places like Ellesmere Island, the land is about as hospitable as the surface of Mars, and it’s a long, long, long way away.
There’s certainly controversy about drilling for oil in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge. Some think it would disturb the life cycle of migratory caribou and other wildlife.
BTW, are we talking about regions where you have to dig through a lot of ice before you can reach the soil? I don’t know about Nunavut, but in Antarctica the ice shield is in most places a mile thick or more. That’s probably the main reason why there are no mining operations in Antarctica (although various countries have stated claims on mineral rights in different sections of the continent).
All of the places inhabited by humans in Nunavut have yearly melts. I am not sure if there is an ice shield in the northernmost part of the territory, and a quick googling failed to turn up an answer. I do know that the northern polar regions are not as cold as the southern polar regions. (But are still DAMN cold)
There are some large areas of land designated as national/heritage/sanctuaries but even if development is banned in these areas there are still VAST quantities of land which are uninhabited.
It is important to recognize the vastness of this territory. Nunavut (not including the NWT or the Yukon) is a little over 2,000,000 square kilometers in area. This is the pretty much the same size as Greenland or Western Europe. A fifth of Canada’s landmass is located in Nunavut.
Now, according to the last census, there are approximately 28,000 people living in Nunavut, giving a population density of 0.01/sq km.
I would say there is plenty of space for some mining to go on.
Look at a map showing the parks in Nunavut here.
It would also be a good thing with regard to employment. I know that in order for Diavik to open a mine near Yellowknife, they had to agree to hire at least 40% (IIRC) native workers. There is high unemployment in Nunavut and prices are insane.
I do not advocate irresponsible mining; that is I would like any mines operating in the territory to cause the least harm possible to the environment, but I do think that the inevitible damage caused is outweighed by the advantages to the economy.
50% NORTHERN. Including non-native, but had lived in the north for a specified period of time.
There was a span of some years between Stewart (Stuart?) Blusson finding diamonds, and Ekati opening. Something like 9 years, IIRC. I’m muzzy on the details. I do know that a great amount of that time was spent on environmental impact studies.
Canada’s North is being mined responsibly.
Ellesmere and parts of Baffin have permanent ice areas; there may be a couple of other Arctic Archipelago islands that do as well. But for the majority of Canada’s North, the situation is much like Toronto or Lansing or Minneapolis – bitterly cold in midwinter, relatively warm in the summer. Of course, the summer is short, and “relatively warm” means what would be a cool spring or fall day in much of the U.S., not people dying of heat prostration. But the concept of it being Ice Age permanent snow- and icecap is the wrong picture. See any good article on the tundra in summer for a better picture.