Pine Point Mine: History in the Landscape

The Pine Point lead-zinc mine was operated from 1964 to 1988 on the south shore of Great Slave Lake in northern Canada. This film shows images of the abandoned mine from the summer of 2009, along with reflections from two Memorial University professors, John Sandlos and Arn Keeling, who are writing a history of the mine and its impact on local people.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Pine Point Mine
• abandoned mines
• northern Canada
• mining history
• environmental history

[frozenwater1]

A few errors in this report. At it's peak Pine Point's population 1800, although some say it was only 1200. Either way, it wasn't 3000. The blue and green water is because of the naturally occurring sulphur in ground, has nothing to do with the mine. In the early years our drinking water smelled like sulphur because it was well water. In the early/mid 70's a pipeline was run from the townsite to the Great Slave lake for drinking water.

[jsandlos]

You are right about the population. I was thinking of the many documents we have looked at where the government and company planned for a population of 3,000-3,500. I realized the error, but it was too late to change it. My guess about the blue water is that it is also connected to having very fine particulate matter in the water (i.e., dust) which bends sunlight to the blue range of the spectrum as in Rocky Mountain lakes where fine glacial till is in the water. Thanks for the comment.

[frozenwater1]

Did you notice a stench when you were standing by the lakes? You would think you would with all the sulfur. The Sulfur is also the reason there are such lovely trees there. Not so much trees as sticks, with a few branches.

[jsandlos]

No sulphur smell coming from the water in the lakes, but definitely welling up from small holes in the ground that our guide thought were created by exploratory drilling. You are also right about the sulpher occurring naturally, though the mining made a lot of changes to water flow regimes in the area. There is lots we don't know at this point, so anything people can tell us is most welcome.

[wolterfd]

Shouldn't that switch stand be locked at 2:34? That looks like the line to Hay River at the left, and you probably could've caused a mishap if the switch were thrown for the abandoned line.

[HaleyRox666999]

i love pine point i go there every fall to fish !! i miss it all year long!! im from hayriver

[bert26a]

A lot of the time lime is used to stabilize acidic soils and water bodies after having been contaminated from mining and other industrial processes.

[dmc081]

looks nice but i don't trust the water the water looks a bit foggy mixed with something in it

[wfoddis]

Thanks for posting this. I'm sure many Pine Pointers will appreciate this, despite the reasons for the video.

[smorin71]

Nicely Done!!! I grew up there and was constantly out motorbiking with all my friends. We went everywhere, there were off limit areas but we still went in there...Good Times. Too bad I can never go home.