The Province of Saskatchewan is suing the federal government for its share of the cleanup costs of what used to be the world’s largest uranium mine.
Saskatchewan has spent $135 million so far with total costs estimated at $280 million; the federal government has spent $1 million, Bronwyn Eyre, Saskatchewan’s minister of energy and natural resources, told reporters during a mine site visit. “I think any fair observer looking at that information would say that is not fair.”
Gunnar Mine, located 25 kilometres south of Uranium City near Lake Athabasca, began as an open pit uranium mine in 1954. It operated underground between 1957 and 1963.
The site was a self-contained community with more than 80 structures including an indoor mall, a bowling alley, school and hospital. When the mine ceased operations in 1963 it released 4.4 million tonnes of tailings into the environment and 2.7 million cubic metres of waste rock, the province says.
On Sept. 22, 2006 the federal and provincial governments signed a Memorandum of Agreement to address the decommissioning and reclamation of Gunnar Mine in a collaborative and equitable manner, according to the province’s statement of claim. The governments were to split the cost of the project, then estimated at $24.6 million, according to the statement of claim.
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