All personnel working at an abandoned uranium mine in the Tlicho region have been evacuated to Yellowknife as a precaution while a 32,000 hectare wildfire rages on nearby.
Officials with the Tlicho government reported all 36 personnel at the Kweti台i台蓚aa虁 (Rayrock) Remediation Project began evacuations on July 5.
"The Rayrock Remediation Project team has confirmed the safe evacuation of 36 personnel to Yellowknife, in accordance with the ProjectSA国际影视传媒檚 Emergency Management and Fire Protection Plan. All Tlicho personnel are accounted for and were safely evacuated," wrote the Tlicho government on their social media feed July 9. "Evacuations began on Saturday evening and continued through Sunday. Essential personnel remained on-site to complete critical shutdown procedures and were evacuated by the end of Monday, July 7.
"The safety of the team and the protection of the environment remain the top priorities of the Rayrock Remediation Project. The Project team is working closely with NWT Fire to monitor the situation."
Kweti台i台蓚aa虁 is the Tlicho name for the area and translated to "where rock projects outward and into the water that flows by."
Wildfire ZF-013 is burning east of the Emile River and has merged with several other wildfires, now reported at 32,000 hectares in size. The GNWT's wildfire update website says firefighters have recommended structural protections be put in place as winds are expected to point Northwest this coming week.
Out of use since Rayrock Mines Ltd. closed it in 1959 and abandoned the site, the project is roughly 145 kilometres North of Yellowknife. The mine was in operation for two years and over 70,000 tonnes of ore were removed from the mine and processed, yielding 207 tonnes of uranium concentrate SA国际影视传媒� also known as "Yellowcake", which the company did not consider a profitable volume of the nuclear fuel to continue operations.
According to the World Nuclear Association, one tonne of uranium can produce 44-million kilowatt hours of electricity, so the yield from the mine would have produced 9.1 billion kilowatt-hours of power SA国际影视传媒� for perspective, in 2020 the City of Yellowknife used 6,600 kilowatt hours per person. Yellowknife's population in 2020 was 20,834, meaning in two years of operation the unprofitable mine produced enough fuel to power Yellowknife at its 2020 demand for 66 years.
Since its closure, the mine has been of particular concern to the Tlicho people as contaminants from the mine could impact wildlife and habitat. A "zone of avoidance" was established around the mine which Tlicho members avoid. The mine was initially remediated in 1996 to standards set by the Atomic Energy Board, but it was later determined the work done was insufficient to prevent contamination to the outside environment. CrownSA国际影视传媒揑ndigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada determined in 2017 that further work was need to ensure the safety of the surrounding area and work has been ongoing since then.
Work to be completed includes replacing the steel, rock, concrete and/or polyurethane caps to block the entranceways to the mines, removing hazardous material which is still present at the site, recapping and sealing mine tailings ponds to prevent them from eroding out into the surrounding ecosystem and removing uranium-contaminated sediment from Mill Lake.
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