NEW REPORT ON ABANDONED MINES

Released on September 24, 2002

Saskatchewan is more than half way through an abandoned mines assessment

program in the province's north. Today Saskatchewan Environment released a

second report on abandoned mine sites.



The aim of the program is to identify and rank any public health/safety

risks and potential impacts that the former mines might have on the

environment. Seventy five sites in total are being researched or

inspected. Twenty eight were examined in the first report, 23 are assessed

in the current report and the remaining sites will be examined in the third

report.



"Most of the sites examined to date pose no immediate health or major

environmental risks," Environment Minister Buckley Belanger said. "We have

found however, the potential for some long-term environmental impacts and

public safety concerns with some of the sites, and this report outlines

ways to address those concerns."



Under current legislation mines can no longer be abandoned. Mining

companies must set aside money to clean up the site when they start

mining. In the 1950s and 1960s many mining companies simply walked away

from the site when the ore ran out. Many of those companies no longer

exist and the task of the clean up falls to the government.



Remediation will be completed based on the risk assessment of each of the

abandoned sites. Installation of warning signs or interim cleanup measures

have been completed on some of the sites.



The inspection of the sites is being carried out in co-operation with

Saskatchewan Northern Affairs, with funding from the province's Centenary

Fund. The last of the three reports is expected in the summer of 2003.



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For more information or access to the report, contact:



Richard Snider

Environment

La Ronge

Phone: (306) 425-4518