Studies and field tests have been ongoing since 2019 in order to select a site restoration strategy that reuses the mine waste and materials generated when certain areas of the Canadian Malartic Mine property were stripped rather than offsite natural borrow material.
The data gathered enabled us to finalize the studies needed to launch the gradual restoration of the mine tailings site. The best mine tailings site coverage scenario will be presented in a new update of the site restoration plan in 2025. Work continues on the best reshaping and coverage method for the surface waste rock piles with a view to gradually starting work to reshape those piles.
The financial security to cover the cost of the timely restoration of the Canadian Malartic Mine site once it has ceased operations is estimated at $320.3 M (restoration plan approved by the Québec Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests on May 12, 2022). The restoration plan is currently being updated and will be filed in 2025 for analysis and approval.
The Odyssey Mine Site Restoration Plan was approved on September 3, 2021, and the financial security to cover the cost of restoring the entire site totals slightly more than $13 M.
Environmental Footprint
Minimizing the environmental footprint means two things:
Using Malartic’s processing plant avoids the need to build other plants over the short and medium term. Furthermore, the site’s current footprint is maximized by introducing new uses, as the Canadian Malartic pit is now a waste rock and tailings deposition area. This major project reduces our environmental footprint.
Deposition Area
Mining in the Canadian Malartic pit ceased in May 2023. Since the mine tailings site is reaching full capacity, it was decided to give the pit a new vocation. The scenario envisaged at the time was presented to, and approved by, the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE – Bureau of Environmental Public Hearings).
Water in the tailings will drain down to a dewatering drift and will then be pumped up to the surface by a pumping well and piped to the processing plant for reuse.
This practice is innovative because of the pit’s size and the co-deposition of mine tailings and waste rock. Some small mines have done the same thing, but only with mine tailings or waste rock. No other mine has adopted the concept of a central berm, two filters and a dewatering drift.
