Well this looks pretty bad...

Treated the sludge? Why do we let them keep sludge/waste ponds anyways. There are local companies with solutions to the issue.

Somewhat normal,but they had a shittonne of snow,and compound that with increasing groundwater due to the beetle kill,it wouldn't surprise me if the pond was full. Probably why they had been looking for a discharge varience.

It should be noted that dams like this are heavily monitored for moisture content,physical movement and seepage,which apparently none of which set an alarm….till it failed.

When I read about this. First thing I was wondering was how much rainfall so far this year and how much is the ground already saturated. Easy to not be concerned when the surface looks all dry and no mud as no one worries about what they can't see like high underground water levels or already saturated ground.

Treated the sludge? Why do we let them keep sludge/waste ponds anyways. There are local companies with solutions to the issue.

um … because that is how you keep it in a controlled environment to remain stable and non-mobile in the groundwater environment.

basically if you want to do anything in this planet, you disturb things and create by-product. get off your high horse, every human is part of the reason why we need to mine. there is no point in human history we have not had to take from the natural resources of this planet. the fact that you are typing on a computer to make your comment makes you an end-user of mining. your typing did not magically go through the air into the internet, it went through a computer made of metals, and wires made of metals, connecting to huge banks of computers made of a lot of metals. that is powered by 100's of km's of copper wiring that brings electricity to your home.

the question is how we manage the by-products. generally, there are many cases where mines have been successfully reclaimed. but none of these will ever get press because people only like hearing about disasters and pointing fingers. if you want examples, look at the Snip gold mine, the sullivan mine, historically reclaimed parts of the highland valley mine.

also, mt polley is an alkalic porphyry copper-gold system. so generally, there is minimal pyrite (FeS) in the ore. the pyrite is the most common cause of acid rock drainage in ore deposits. it creates acidified conditions that then make heavy deleterious metals to become water soluble, then entering the ground water system. as a product, alkalic porphyry systems are generally favorable because they are not generally bad for acid generation. on a side note, alkalic porphyry systems tend to be more "mafic" i.e. containing greater Fe-Mg-Mn contents. It has been shown in a lot of well supported research that mafic tailing piles act as man-made carbon sinks that absorb a large budget of atmospheric carbon. calculations out of research from ubc has shown that it is the most efficient carbon sequestration solution we know of today.

i'm not saying in any way that this disaster is "okay." as a matter of fact i am horribly disappointed and upset about this disaster. it is unacceptable in any way you look at it.

the free market will surely take responsibility and clean this up.
I expect to hear from farmer any minute now about how they should deregulate the industry.

:lol:

Blah blah. Sludge/waste ponds are obviously not a viable solution to managing the effluent. Water/metals and whatever else can be pretty easily separated out, these companies are too cheap/lazy to do it. When shareholders suffer significantly maybe that will change.

Blah blah. Sludge/waste ponds are obviously not a viable solution to managing the effluent. Water/metals and whatever else can be pretty easily separated out, these companies are too cheap/lazy to do it. When shareholders suffer significantly maybe that will change.

dude, are you confusing oil sands with mine tailings? these are very different products.

also, do you have any idea what you are talking about with regards to this subject or are you an armchair expert on the topic? "these companies are too cheap/lazy to do it." there is no such thing as easily separated out. in mining a "go ahead" internal rate of return is 12 %. that is peanuts in terms of what the rate of return in the tech industry, oil and gas, forestry, pharmaceutical industries get on returns. there is no being greedy here, this is extracting metal so that the world can continue to exist. if you even hope to have "green" energy that is electricity based, you better freakin' believe we are going to need a shit tonne more metal to make that possible. green energy comes at the cost of more mining.

again, if you bothered to learn anything about how mines and tailings facilities are reclaimed, you would know that that there are a lot of successful mine reclamations where deleterious metals sequestered in mine tailings are secured and reclaimed. you probably don't even notice that you drive right through a reclaimed mine tailing on the coquihalla highway. so the fact that you say "Sludge/waste ponds are obviously not a viable solution to managing the effluent." shows how little you know on the subject.

it would be great to find better solutions to reduce our footprint on the environment when mining. but that takes time to figure out. presently the industry is working to develop new underground bulk mining methods which would minimize the footprint of a mine, i.e. no open pit and mining tailings waste at surface. but at present there is only two mines in canada where this has been built, the economics of this are yet to be determined.

ultimately, this attitude which you possess that it was "their fault" and "they are horrible people" or "they were obviously too cheap and greedy" to do what is right is not constructive. opposing the issue is not a solution to the problem, accepting it for what it is and looking for better ways to do things in my mind is the only way forward to creating a sustainable human existence. you are in no means "clean" of this tragedy. dude, you ride a bike, it's made out of metal, contains metal parts, is made out of carbon fibre which had to mined from petroleum products that probably came from the oil sands or some other oil well. there is no "they" it is "us"

also, shareholder discontent does not change corporate policy. that's not how the world works. in movies that how it works, but in reality no. the policy implementation has to come from governance from the provincial level. there is a lot to learn from this disaster, hopefully this will not ever happen again in our lifetimes or the lifetimes of our children. but we are dealing with natural systems, anyone who steps out of the comfort of the urban/civilized world (which it sounds like you don't) nature is unpredictable and difficult to work within. if you're under some impression that people in mining or exploration are fat cats rolling around with lots of money, you are frankly very very wrong. geologists in general are some of the most frugal, conscious people I know. they know how live minimally because we are forced to in remote camps. we know how much effort goes into just getting one mine in operation, we waste not. mining is one of the worst affected by economic cycles, so most people are frugle becuase we know there may be extended periods of time we will be unemployed due to market conditions. most geologists wear clothes until they wear out, don't spend much, love the outdoors.

there are many companies that house the old attitude of rape and pillage. i am very cognizant of this. there is no denying the ugly side of things. but the new generation of people running companies and replacing the baby boomers are a generation raised with recycling and environmentalism as centre to a way of life.

I can't imagine that is even close of an equitable trade-off.

No, c'mon. That's how they make immense profits.
If it's say, Papa New Quinea or South America they just freaking walk away laughing.
I once played softball there was a mining sort used to come out, laughed telling us how they once flushed a side of some mountain down a river somewhere's in South America.
Canadian mining companies are the worst of the worst when it comes to this stuff.
Including the human rights abuses.

http://www.ejolt.org/2012/10/canada-should-rein-in-its-criminal-mining-companies/

http://www.ctvnews.ca/w5-searching-for-gold-at-the-end-of-the-guatemalan-rainbow-1.502718

this is extracting metal so that the world can continue to exist.

I suggest we as consumers pay the true cost of our iCrap instead of offloading these costs on the people, communities and flora and fauna that surround these sites.

Racing third world countries to the bottom is a race I don't want to be a part of.

No, c'mon. That's how they make immense profits.
If it's say, Papa New Quinea or South America they just freaking walk away laughing.
I once played softball there was a mining sort used to come out, laughed telling us how they once flushed a side of some mountain down a river somewhere's in South America.
Canadian mining companies are the worst of the worst when it comes to this stuff.
Including the human rights abuses.

http://www.ejolt.org/2012/10/canada-should-rein-in-its-criminal-mining-companies/

http://www.ctvnews.ca/w5-searching-for-gold-at-the-end-of-the-guatemalan-rainbow-1.502718

yup, there are definitely bad ones out there. but worst of the worst is not true man. australians rape and pillage their own country with far more lax regulations than canada. they apply even less regulations in the congo. china is unspeakable in their practices. the soviet era, i've been there i know how horrible that legacy is. i have never seen that in any of canada that compares to what has been done over there. google norislk nickel mine or the bor mine to get a real sense of what "horrible" is.

anyway. imperial metals and the bc government fucked up. i do not know what is to become of this. but the future is grim.

Racing third world countries to the bottom is a race I don't want to be a part of.

You no longer have a choice.

You no longer have a choice.

that is the sad truth. for once i agree with you on a subject. have you ever read "Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn. He made a point that mankind began its free-fall into oblivion the moment he invented agriculture. we've been flapping our arms ever since thinking we can fly while we continue to free-fall into destroying out world.

So who should be paid more - geologists or teachers?

So who should be paid more - geologists or teachers?

teachers. that's coming from a geologist. but it doesn't come down to just paying someone to do a job. you have to fund the programs so that they can do their jobs. but to do that you need money. where does money in the government come from? taxes. who makes a lot of money and can provide impacting tax revenue, industry. who should do a better job of managing that tax revenue, provincial government. who's to blame for voting a particular government in, people.

on the spectrum of the mining cycle the pay scale is. laborer[HTML_REMOVED]geologist[HTML_REMOVED]=trades[HTML_REMOVED]environmental consultants (reclamation) [HTML_REMOVED]engineering[HTML_REMOVED]mining

You no longer have a choice.

Humanity is a ship that does move, albeit mind-rapingly slowly. No point in giving up.