Social and community engaged mine closure: an exploration of mine closure governance and industry practices in northern Canada

Monosky, Miranda (2021) Social and community engaged mine closure: an exploration of mine closure governance and industry practices in northern Canada. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

The inevitable closure and remediation phase of a mine’s lifecycle routinely causes negative socio-economic and environmental impacts for nearby communities. For mines operating on Indigenous territories, where communities have complex and nuanced connections to land and varying levels of jurisdiction, these issues are further exacerbated by the exclusion of Indigenous voices from planning and decision-making. Using qualitative document analysis and semi-structured interviews, this research sought to understand company approaches to socio-economic closure planning and community engagement across the North, and then examined Nunavik, Québec, as a case study to explore mine closure governance. The results show that mine companies across the North are inadequately addressing the socio-economic aspects of closure and inconsistently involving communities in the closure planning process. In Nunavik, government policies do little to regulate these aspects of mine closure, which has allowed for considerable variation in closure planning strategies between the companies operating in the region. These shortcomings in closure policies and industry practices mean governments and companies risk reproducing past closure and remediation failures.

Item Type: Thesis (Masters)
URI: http://research.library.mun.ca/id/eprint/15031
Item ID: 15031
Additional Information: Includes bibliographical references (pages 161-189).
Keywords: mine closure, remediation, Indigenous Knowledge, northern Canada
Department(s): Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of > Geography
Date: May 2021
Date Type: Submission
Digital Object Identifier (DOI): https://doi.org/10.48336/3HKK-SN48
Library of Congress Subject Heading: Mine closures--Social aspects--Canada, Northern; Mine closures--Economic aspects--Canada, Northern; Corporate governance--Social aspects--Canada, Northern; Corporate governance--Economic aspects--Canada, Northern.

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