Historic Mine Remediation

About the Project

The former Montague Gold Mines are located in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Over 68,000 ounces of gold was produced from 1865 to 1940 from nearly 122,000 tonnes of mined ore. Ore was processed on-site, using a variety of stamp mills to crush and pulverize mined rock.

Mine reclamation activities at the end of operations consisted mainly of removal of buildings and infrastructure with salvage value. As a result, the area remains heavily disturbed with numerous open mine shafts and a number of uncontained tailings disposal areas.

The Government of Nova Scotia began a review of the tailings disposal areas on Crown lands in the fall of 2018 to assess potential chemical contamination. This included the development of a risk management and closure plan for the main tailings areas, as well as several additional tailings areas which are distant from the main site.

Initial conceptual closure plans were completed in the summer of 2019, and sampling and assessment has continued to take place. Phase 1 and Phase 2 Environmental Site Assessments (ESAs) were completed in 2022, including Human Health and Ecological Risk assessments.

Findings show that the Montague Mines does not pose an immediate risk to the public; however, parts of them are considered contaminated and need to be managed.

Additional studies have been conducted to increase the understanding of environmental contamination in the areas associated with the site and to assess potential risks and finalize the tailings closure plan.