Mixed reality software takes viewers inside Giant Mine cleanup
If you've ever wanted to get an up-close look at the Giant Mine remediation work that's underway, this is your chance.
There's now mixed reality software that brings people 600 metres underneath the former gold mine site near Yellowknife.
The federal government teamed up with BGC Engineering to produce a 3D view of the site, which shows the underground chambers where 237,000 tons of toxic arsenic trioxide dust is stored.
All viewers have to do to see it is put on a special Microsoft headset.
"You don't need any special technical training to understand this," Brent Mooder, a principal hydrogeological engineer with BGC Engineering. "Anyone can see what we're seeing and anyone can understand."
Mooder said the software has already been shown to members of a technical review board in Vancouver, to government project team members in Ottawa and people living in Yellowknife.
To date, BGC has been involved in three events in Yellowknife, going back to March of this year, where the public can check out the mixed reality experience, said Matt Lato, senior geotechnical engineer with BGC.
The next major event is scheduled to happen in Yellowknife in March 2019, and is expected to include a week of community meetings. The events are hosted by Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, with presentations from the Giant Mine remediation team, said Lato.
The federal government is bringing the software to community meetings to show how the environment and people's safety are being protected as the mine site is being cleaned up.
With files from Juanita Taylor
