Environmental Impacts of Rare Earth Mining:

• One of the most environmentally destructive kind of mining operations.

• Because of their diluted existence, vast areas must be mined and enormous volume of raw ore needed to be processed to obtain a small quantity of usable rare earth elements (REEs). Geological disturbance and upheaval in a phenomenal scale.

• Although REEs are mildly to moderately toxic, other highly toxic and readily bioaccumulative heavy metals (mercury, cadmium, lead, arsenic and chromium) present in the mine will be released, mobilized, redistributed, and even concentrated in a great scale during rare earth mining.

• Radionuclides such as thorium, uranium and their decay products (e. g. radium) often present at elevated levels alongside rare earth deposits. Radioactive residues will be released and poses serious health risk to biota and humans which will last thousands of years.
For everyton of REEs produced, one ton of radioactive residues will be released into the environment.

• For every ton of REEs produced, 2,000 tons of toxic wastes are generated.

• Leaching /tailings ponds problem: The huge quantities of chemicals (including strong acids) used in extracting the raw ore to release REEs. Flotation tailings, treatment sludges and other liquid effluents discharged into open tailings ponds contain acids, heavy metals and radionuclides, which can seep into soils and surrounding watersheds. The repeated freeze-thaw cycles in the North could release more REEs and other heavy metals and radionuclides from the tailings through intensive erosion processes.

• Large quantities of waste rocks laced with radionuclides and heavy metals resulted from rare earth mining. Weathering process leaches out these contaminants into the environment over time.

• Large quantities of dust laden with radionuclides and heavy metals is generated during the blasting, crushing and milling processes prior to the flotation process. This poses a serious health risk to humans working in the mine and contaminates nearby watersheds and soils.

Bottomline:

“ Rare earth mining is the dirty and toxic underbelly of green technologies and clean energy.There is no free lunch for getting things green and clean.”

The situation in at the proposed mine site at Lac Brisson (280km south of Kangiqsualujjuaq):

The mining company has said that the wastewater from the mine after some kind of so-called treatment will be discharged into the Lac Brisson watershed. According to detail hydrological data, water from the Lac Brisson watershed flows southward into Lac Mistinibi which is the headwater or the source of George River. The wastewater will then flow into George River and contaminate the entire length of George River.

The mining company claimed that the wastewater will be treated to such a high standard that it will become harmless and not different from the water in Lac Brisson. In that case, I proposed to them that in order to save money for the operataion of the mine, the treated wastewater should be used in the mine for drinking, cooking and cleansing by the mining personnel instead of discharging it into Lac Brisson.