Manitoba investing $50M to clean up orphaned and abandoned mines

As part of its 2022 budget, the Manitoba government is investing $50.7 million to clean up orphaned and abandoned mines across the province.

Environment, Climate and Parks Minister Jeff Wharton announced the funding at a news conference on Tuesday, saying the investment will also be used to create a long-term care, maintenance and surveillance program for the rehabilitated mines.

“Manitoba is committed to ensuring a rapid pace of remediation efforts to ensure economic growth, environmental protection and human safety from high-risk mining legacy sites in our province,” Wharton said at the news conference.

The $50.7 million will go to the Orphaned and Abandoned Mines Rehabilitation Program over the next five years.

To date, this program has done remediation work at 39 high and moderate-risk sites. The work completed at these mines includes debris clean up, the installation of shaft caps, sealing mine openings, and the demolition and covering of tailings. These sites are now considered low risk and only require periodic monitoring.

According to the province, an orphaned and abandoned mine is one that is no longer in operation. In these situations, the owner either can’t be found or is unable to rehabilitate the site, so it becomes the province’s responsibility to clean it up.

“We recognize that these sites have created a substantial economic liability to our province,” the minister said.

“Without action, many of these sites pose a real and potential threat to environment and human safety and our health.”