(PHOTO: Gunnar uranium mine clean-up. Courtesy of Sask. Government.)
The Saskatchewan government has filed a financial claim against the federal government for shared costs in the remediation of the Gunnar uranium mine site located just west of Fond Du Lac on the shores of Lake Athabasca.
Energy and Resources Minister Bronwyn Eyre says the 2006 Memorandum of Agreement states that Ottawa would pay half of the estimated $25 million clean-up. That estimate has now ballooned to $280 million.
Eyre says the province will have paid $135 million by April, while the federal government contributed $1.13 million.
“By the end of this fiscal year we will have spent $135 million on Gunnar mine’s remediation towards a total estimated cost of the project of $280 million. In contrast the federal government will have spent $1.1 million,” Eyre said. “We are not walking away. We are not suspending work, we are not suspending contracts. We are simply asking, we are imploring the federal government to pay its fair share of continuing remediation work.”
Remediation includes the demolition and burial of 84 structures, including the uranium mill, two acid plants, a headframe, uranium processing buildings and the small 800 person community. Asbestos, uranium tailings, sulfur and waste rock also needs to be safely dealt with.
The Gunnar mine began production in 1955 and was shut down in 1963. Gunnar Mining Limited, the operator of the mine, ceased to exist by the mid-1980s.