Fonds AR340 - Island Copper Mine fonds

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Title and statement of responsibility area

Title proper

Island Copper Mine fonds

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Fonds

Reference code

CA UVICARCH AR340

Edition statement

Edition statement of responsibility

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Statement of scale (architectural)

Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)

Dates of creation area

Date(s)

  • 1970-2000 (Creation)
    Creator
    Island Copper Mine

Physical description area

Physical description

3.9 m of textual records

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Archival description area

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Administrative history

The Island Copper Mine (ICM), which was Canada's third largest copper mine, was located about 16 kilometres South of Port Hardy, near the northern end of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. From 1970 to 1995, Copper, Gold, Silver, Molybdenum and a by-product Rhenium were mined, using conventional open pit truck and shovel methods. At closing more than 1 billion tons of material had been moved, leaving the deepest excavated depression below sea-level on earth.

At one time, the mine employed over 900 people, and helped turn the tiny community of Port Hardy into a town of 5,000. It also made very significant contributions to the mining and milling industry. Because of the challenges faced by the mine, including low-grade ore and economic recession, many improvements to techniques and equipment were implemented, and copied around the world. Examples include the tailings disposal system, the comprehensive environmental monitoring program, the use of a semi-mobile crusher system located in the pit itself, and the South Wall Pushback, a 4,000 foot long plastic concrete wall constructed as a seepage barrier against seawater intrusion, which allowed mining to continue longer than anticipated.

To deal with the massive amounts of mine tailings produced, Island Copper Mine discharged around 400 million tons of tailings through an outfall at 50 m depth into the adjacent Rupert Inlet, a process known as submarine tailings disposal (STD) or submarine tailings placement (STP). The mine's final environmental project was the conversion of the pit to a meromictic pit lake, which involved flooding the pit with seawater, and forming a stratified lake with anoxic bottom waters into which the acid rock drainage could be injected and neutralized. This was a novel, near-passive system.

ICM pioneered the engineering for STD systems and the monitoring techniques for assessing the impact of tailings on the marine ecosystems, and subsequent recovery from that impact. For thirty years, a team of scientists and engineers from BC universities oversaw the assessments conducted by the mine.

Custodial history

Scope and content

Fonds consists of the following series: Annual Environmental Reports, 1971-98; ICM staff environmental reports, 1970-2000; University reports, 1970-2000; Consultants' reports, 1970-99; Government reports, 1970-97; and Other reports, 1970-2000. These reports document the history of the mine, as well as the monitoring information, problems, and solutions it dealt with over the years. The first two series are arranged by date. The remaining series are arranged alphabetically by author. The report files often also include scientific articles, newspaper clippings, letters and related documentation.

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Finding aids

Inventory available with series and file level control.Online Finding Aid [http://archives.library.uvic.ca/featured_collections/esa/fonds_island_copper_mines/default.html]

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Related materials

Accruals

2000-069

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Control area

Description record identifier

island-copper-mine-fonds

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Dates of creation, revision and deletion

2013-02-05. Updated 2016-04-28 [MP].

Language of description

  • English

Script of description

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