Aunor Mine Site

General Project Overview

In September 2000, Kinross began reclamation of the Aunor Mine and demolition of the townsite. The properties were previously owned by Royal Oak Mines and were generally in a state of abandonment prior to being acquired by Kinross. The reclamation work was undertaken in accordance with a cooperative agreement between Kinross and the Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines. 

The Aunor Mine reportedly operated between 1940 and 1984 and consisted of an underground mining operation with one main shaft as well as two vent raises and sand passes. A hoist room, mill, shops, storage buildings, office building and mine dry were located around the headframe along with the remaining foundations and basements of at least six other partially demolished buildings. Several of these buildings, including the mineshaft, presented serious safety concerns and had to be addressed expeditiously. A town site was also located west of the mine and housed employees and managers.

Project Details

The 2000 progressive rehabilitation of the Aunor property consisted of the removal of all buildings and infrastructure associated with the mine and town site with the exception of one storage building. The demolition was contracted out to Denison Environmental Services of Elliot Lake, Ontario.

Well before the demolition work began, Kinross and the contractor carefully prepared a plan of action that would see the project come to completion in a 60-day period beginning September 1, 2000.

In accordance with Kinross and provincial environmental requirements, maximum recycling and reuse of building materials was carried out in order to reduce material volumes transported to a local landfill site. In order to ensure the success of the recycling program, each house in the town site was auctioned to private bidders. The successful bidders were given a finite period of time within which they could either strip the houses of all reusable building materials, including plumbing, flooring, cupboards, windows, doors, etc., or simply move the entire house. Two of the six houses were moved from the site and the remaining houses were demolished after stripping. Similarly, all recyclable materials from the mine site were separated from the waste streams and collected by local building material recyclers. Following the removal of all wastes to the landfill site, all remaining concrete foundations at the mine site and town site were collapsed and buried in place as inert fill. All waste chemicals and petroleum products encountered at the site were gathered and removed by a licensed waste disposal company. Soils impacted by petroleum hydrocarbons were excavated and hauled off to a licensed landfill site for proper disposal. The only remaining building, following the demolition, was a secured storage facility slated for demolition within the next two years.

During the demolition of the mine site, the existing shaft was permanently closed with an engineered reinforced concrete cap anchored into the shaft collar. The cap was constructed in accordance with rehabilitation regulations set out in the Ontario Mining Act.

Following the removal of all non-recyclable debris, including a former waste dump on the edges of the mine site, concrete foundations and brick walls were collapsed into basements and covered with imported overburden. All roadway surfaces, as well as other disturbed surfaces on the mine site and within the town site were loosened up, graded, and prepared for revegetation. The contractor seeded the prepared areas with a mixture of seed and fertilizer.

A report describing the progressive rehabilitation works was issued to the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines in early 2001.