Province expropriates land for Goldenville mine cleanup
GOLDENVILLE — Five years after declaring its intention to clean up a dangerously contaminated abandoned mine in Goldenville, the provincial government moved swiftly last week to get on with the job by expropriating the land on which it sits.
But, despite supporting the long-delayed remediation plan, the head of the small community’s volunteer-run heritage society said she was not consulted, or even alerted, about the property measure. She wants to be kept in the loop to prevent “rumours and misinformation” from spreading.
“I find it concerning [that] this is the first I am hearing of this,” Heritage Goldenville Society Executive Director Vickie Bruce told The Journal on July 5, acknowledging that she learned of the province’s action – authorized by an order in council on Monday – only after receiving an email from this newspaper asking for her opinion.
She said the society’s role is to preserve the mining heritage of the Goldenville area and it has been consulted by the province directly in the past on the mine’s history and on the condition of the actual site.
“The society’s aim is to serve as a central hub for disseminating accurate information about the reclamation process, helping to prevent the spread of rumors and misinformation that could negatively impact our community and the reclamation efforts,” she said. “This break in communication is troubling [and] I have reached out... to [a representative of] the Government of Nova Scotia.”
In an email earlier on July 5, provincial spokesperson Erin Lynch confirmed that “the Heritage Goldenville Society hasn’t been involved, but the Municipality of the District of Saint Mary’s has and we have informed them of the plan to expropriate” approximately 29 hectares of Goldenville’s long-defunct gold mine – one of the most productive during Nova Scotia’s 19th century gold rush – because “the ownership is unknown and [has been] impeding progress to clean up mining contamination on adjacent Crown lands.”
The province put those properties – verified as polluted with high levels of arsenic and mercury from legacy mining operations – on their cleanup list in 2019. Three years later, government scientists ranked the Goldenville site as the fifth most tainted in the province.
Noting that the cost of the reclamation project is estimated at $34.34 million, Lynch said, “The province recognizes liability for remediation of the entire Goldenville mine site, a priority area for ongoing work between the department and Build Nova Scotia.”
Said Bruce: “We look forward to working closely with... the Nova Scotia agencies responsible for the project... to ensure we are kept informed of future developments and included in discussions.”
Alec Bruce, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Guysborough Journal
