Featured
New book reflects on history of Giant Mine
The authors spoke with various Indigenous locals when researching
The story of the Giant Mine is one that most Yellowknife residents know well, but two authors have come together to share their findings on the legacy the mine has left behind, from the societal to the environmental.
The Price of Gold: Mining, Pollution, and Resistance in Yellowknife has been written by John Sandlos and Arn Keeling. Sandlos is a history professor, and Keeling is a geography professor, both from the Memorial University of Newfoundland. Sandlos has a history of researching environmental conservation and the history of the mining sector in northern Canada. Keeling has done much research on the encounters of Indigenous communities with large-scale resource developments in northern Canada. The two have previously worked together on another book, Mining Country: A History of Canada’s Mines and Miners.
Author John Sandlos will be appearing at the Prince of Wales Heritage Centre for the launch of his new book. (Photo provided by Publicist Diane Hargrave)
“It’s a story, mostly a history, of Giant Mine, but it also touches a little bit on the history of Con Mine, so the two mines that were closest to Yellowknife and operated for a long period of time. It starts with the introduction of mining in the 1930s and we start to document some of the impacts of that period on the Yellowknives Dene, and very quickly we get into tracking the pollution that came from both mines, the arsenic trioxide.” Said John Sandlos in his own description of the book.
“In 1942, Con Mine starts roasting their ore as part of the process of separating out the gold, and they release arsenic trioxide out of a smokestack. Then in 1949, Giant Mine starts doing that with a whole heck of a lot more ore, and so very quickly, in that period between 1949 and 1951, there’s a lot of poisonous arsenic trioxide dust being emitted from the two mines.”
Sandlos goes on to add how their research for the book had himself and Keeling track the rise and fall around the public concern of arsenic, and even to when people became angry with the government for attempting to hide links between arsenic trioxide and cancer.
In conducting their research for this book, the two authors worked directly with various Indigenous entities, including the Yellowknives Dene, the Goyatiko Language Society, and many different elders and Chiefs.
“The community was actually part of a partnership project where we worked on some community mapping that was a real concern to people about how they wanted to know where land users were most concerned about arsenic contamination.
“In terms of the book, I would say that we’re definitely not trying to tell the Yellowknives Dene story for them, so our focus is mostly on the government’s and the mining company’s actions and inactions. That being said, there’s no way to leave the Yellowknives Dene out of the story, and we uncovered a lot of really interesting sources.”
The book was co-written by Arn Keeling, who will also be appearing at the book launch. (Photo provided by Publicist Diane Hargrave)
In her promotions, Publicist Diane Hargrave described the book as “an in-depth examination of the toxic legacy of Giant Mine and how it will haunt the Yellowknife region for generations to come.” Sandlos elaborated on that framing, likening abandoned mines to zombies.
It’s the idea that these places are dead. These mines aren’t operating anymore, but they still exert a kind of, potentially malevolent influence on the communities that surround them. There’s still unresolved issues that are potentially detrimental, and when you remediate that mine, it can kind of have an afterlife.”
An official launch event for the book will be held on Thursday, October 16th, at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre. While there, they will talk about some of the many different subjects the book covers, while also answering questions from locals. A similar event was held in St. John’s earlier this month, but they feel it will be much more personable this time, since there will be people present who have lived experience with the topic.
Sandlos shared what he felt is the overall message of this book that he wants people to take away from it, “that foresight and planning and thinking about the future, and not just thinking about the short term when it comes to development projects, is very very important.”
