A Tour of Nanisivik - Part 1

Happy New Year!

Here it is. The long awaited Tour of Nanisivik mini-series.  A perfect way to start off the new year of 2015!

            

Let's rewind the clocks to August 2014.

            

I visited the Nanisivik mine, town site, and airport on August 31, during the Labour Day Weekend.  My tour guide was long time Arctic Bay resident, Frank May.  These places have been on my list of places-to-go ever since I arrived in town two years ago.

            

Nanisivik, meaning the place where people find things in Inuktitut, was a mining town built in 1975 about 20km to the east of Arctic Bay.  It housed & supported, the workers who laboured in the Nanisivik Mine, their families, and local Inuit.  The Nanisivik Mine began operating in 1976, producing lead-zinc ore that was shipped and sold to European smelters.  A deep sea dock was constructed to enable large ships to collect the ore and transport it to Europe.  An airport with a 5,000-foot runway was also constructed to ferry supplies and workers from all over Canada.

            

The mine was managed by Strathcona Minerals Services Limited, the same company that was hired by the TSX to look into the 1996 Bre-X Scandal.  The mine closed in 2002 and the town was abandoned not long after.  The Nanisivik Airport continued to operate until 2010 when all flights were transferred to the newly expanded Arctic Bay Airport.

            

Frank drove his pickup truck along the Road to Nanisivik, the 32km gravel road that links Arctic Bay, the former Nanisivik town site & dock, and the Nanisivik Airport.  At the moment, it's still Nunavut's longest highway.  The first leg of the tour was driving past familiar landmarks: the First Bridge, Liquor Restricted Area Signs, and the Second Bridge.  The Second Bridge was the location of Operation Hill Top 13, 3045 Army's Field Training eXercise (FTX) in September 2013.  The bridge would also be the location for Operation Hill Top 14 the following September. 

            

The Long Stretch

When we passed the Second Bridge, I was venturing into unexplored lands.  For Frank, who has travelled back & forth on this road for more than two decades, this was just another every day road trip.  Frank stopped his truck so that I could get out and take a picture of the Long Stretch, a 5km portion of the road that runs straight.  About halfway down the stretch, we stopped at a former gravel crusher site just to left of the road.  All that remained were the tracks where surface rock was pushed down, scooped up, and put into the crusher.

            

Former rock crushing site.

In 1985, a large crusher was brought up on sealift and placed here with the sole task of taking big rocks and crushing them into sand & gravel.  The sand & gravel would be used to pave the Nanisivik Airport runway.  Even though the crusher was removed in 1986, the machine had crushed enough rock to service the airport until it closed in 2010.

            

Frank's inukshuk

During the 1980s, a snow fence had been built along The Long Stretch to prevent snow from burying the road to Nanisivik.  Frank was one of the workers who laboured on this fence.  What's impressive is the inukshuk he built in 1986 still stands after nearly thirty years. 

            

"Mount Fuji"

As we came to the end of the Long Stretch, a tall cone-shaped mountain came into view.  The mountain is locally known as "Mount Fuji" because it looks like the real Mount Fuji in Japan.  Frank explained that diamond drilling was done around the mountain until 1990.  A temporary road had to be laid down to make this possible.  He also said that a few people have skied down "Mount Fuji" during the winter months.  After studying the mountain from a distance, I could imagine myself doing the same thing.  I would just need someone with a skidoo to drive me back up to the top.

            

Terry Fox Pass Monument

The next significant monument we visited was Terry Fox Pass (TFP), named after Canadian athlete & cancer research activist, Terry Fox.  TFP was established in the early 1980s by the Polar Pacers and the Midnight Sun Marathoners.  At TFP stands a rock monument with three flag poles (Canada, NWT, Nanisivik Mine), and a tall sign post that gives directions to various cities.  At the base of the monument lays a commemoration plaque.  Betty Fox, Terry Fox's mother, attended the monument's dedication ceremony in 1981.  Terry Fox's younger brother worked as a summer student at the Nanisivik Mine for a time and participated in the marathon. 

            

Frank fixes the directions sign.

One of the main organizers of TFP and the Midnight Sun Marathon was Joe Wormsley, aka Arctic Joe.  Originally from PEI, Wormsley is a former D-Day paratrooper and was once the fittest man in the British Empire.  For twenty-five years, he would travel up north to participate in the Midnight Sun Marathon - Arctic Bay to Nanisivik Dock, and back up to the Nanisivik town site.  Two of these marathons would be held every year during the July 1st weekend.  A 100km marathon was held every 5 years.  About 125 runners from all over the world participated in the marathons and the winners received medals.  Frank was a frequent participant.                      

            

Personally, I don't think I could ever be ready for a marathon.  Sure, I could walk or drive the entire distance but jogging & running?  I don't think so.

            

We got back into the pickup truck and drove onwards.  Frank turned left at the T-intersection towards the mining town and dock area.  (Turning right would have led us to the airport).  We would come back and visit the airport.  Frank calls the T-intersection, "The world's most northerly highway interchange."

            

Naturally occurring iron oxide.

Tailings Pond.

We passed a large red hill covered by naturally occurring iron oxide before arriving at the tailings pond.  Tailings are the waste rock of the mining process, usually high in arsenic and other toxic materials.  The waste rock needs to be disposed and in most cases, mining companies will build a tailings pond.  The pond is the biggest problem of any mining operation because of the toxic substances; you can't let them out into the environment.  Usually, a mining company's water license specifies that all tailings have to be underwater so that they don't get blown away by wind.

            

Tailings Pond.

When the mine closed in 2002, the mining company let the water from the pond drain into the ocean.  The ocean was not damaged because the toxicity is in the sediments at the bottom of the pond.  The company trucked in shale and covered the whole pond 2 metres thick.  This will let the permafrost freeze everything and hopefully hold those tailings until the "end of the time" as Frank put it.  Pipes were later inserted into the pond with thermometers to monitor the permafrost.

            

A rocky hill overlooking the tailings pond. Pipes with thermometers can be seen to the left of centre.

I was surprised by how much land the tailings pond covers.  The Nanisivik Mine produced a lot of waste rock during its twenty-six year operation.  You could build an entire town on top of the flat surface, or stage a large music concert, but I wouldn't recommend it.  Frank drove onto the pond so that we could get a better look at all the pipes.  For several minutes, it was difficult for me to believe that there was water beneath all the shale. 

            

After snapping several more pictures of the pond and "Mount Fuji", Frank drove back onto the main road and proceeded towards the town site.      

To Be Continued . . .

*All in-depth background information was happily provided by long time Arctic Bay resident Frank May.  Thank you.