Giant Mine Social Impacts

Giant mine: social impacts and remediation

Over the fifty-four years of operation, Giant Mine produced over seven million ounces of gold worth a massive two billion dollars. Located just outside Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Giant Mine, mined and processed gold, which entailed several processes that leaves behind a very toxic chemical dust called arsenic trioxide (Sandlos, J., & Keeling, 2012). However, with many growing cities, recourse extraction was the most beneficial way to turn what they had into money. Mining can provoke serious change within a community; while this can help fund local infrastructure such as building roads and schools, mining will always leave the land devastated when the resource runs dry. Before Giant Mine was

These aboriginals showed the prospectors where to locate the gold because they had no use for the metal. When Giant mine was built the aboriginals of the region were not consulted about the project and in turn the mine had contaminated the very land the deemed sacred. Due to the contamination of the water, many of the animals that the Yellowknife Dene people relied on left the area and the social impact has been everlasting (Impact of the Yellowknife Giant Gold Mine on the Yellowknives Dene, 2005). During the early 1950’s, Giant mine and other mines within the area released around twenty-two thousand pounds of arsenic per day into the air. Although some of these mines invested in scrubbers to mitigate the pollution, Giant mine only implemented these scrubbers when a fatality occurred within the Dene tribe because of the contaminated water. The Yellowknife Dene tribe suffered from several health impacts from the contaminated water, but also, the harvestable land they lived is not longer livable due to urban growth of Yellowknife city (Mortillaro, 2014). The social impacts that this tribe has faced should not have occurred and through the reclamation of the mine site, the government of Canada will try to restore

With population growth also comes schools and road systems, which often entails a permanent settlement. In terms of the Yellowknife Dene tribe, many of these institutions were built on land that they called sacred. These permanent settlements meant the loss of harvestable land for the Dene First Nation tribe as well as loss of hunting and fishing sites. Events such as these can cause serious social implications in terms of how the community functions as a whole. As in many aboriginal communities, the tribe members work together as a cohesive community. However, when such traumatic events such as the installation of a gold mine on their traditional land occur, the social cohesiveness of the tribe is lost. Throughout history the Dene First Nations tribe has faced many adversities, including having a game reserve situated on their traditional land, a massive influenza outbreak caused by the colonial explorers, as well as having their land taken from them in the pursuit of gold. All of these adversities have made this tribe less resilient than many other tribes not facing these traumatic events, and like any community, if they are no longer resilient, the ability to sustain themselves and prevent other traumas from disrupting their community will be non-existent. When this occurs, many people drive themselves to drugs and alcohol, and within time