Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

The mining industry is of fundamental importance to Canada's economy. The growing demand for mineral resources will lead to the development of many new mining projects in Canada and elsewhere in the world over the coming decades. However, mining activities can entail environmental and societal impacts. Under the Canadian legal framework, mining projects must undergo environmental assessment procedures that involve evaluating impacts on the quantity and quality of groundwater. However, to date, scientific knowledge gaps limit the accuracy of environmental studies for assessing the impacts of mines on aquifers. Fitting in this context, the long-term goal of this research program is to improve the assessment of the hydrogeochemical impacts of mine dewatering and drainage on groundwater. The specific objectives are (1) to develop geochemical and isotopic approaches to trace the sources and fate of CEC in mine waters, with a focus on S and N compounds, (2) to develop approaches to improve the accuracy of calculations and models for assessing the hydrogeological and geochemical impacts of mine dewatering and (3) to develop mutual knowledge -sharing approaches to improve consideration of indigenous science in assessing the environmental impacts and social acceptability of mining projects. The target regions are the Nitakinan, anicinape aki and Eeyou Istchee, within the Canadian Shield. The preferred sites for data collection will be the partners of the UQAT- Polytechnique Research institute on Mines and the Environment. Work under Specific Objective 1 will focus on the isotopic tracing of nitrogen compounds (including ammoniacal nitrogen, cyanates and thiocyanates) and sulfur compounds (including thiosalts and sulfates) in mine waters, under field conditions and on synthetic solutions in the laboratory. This work will be carried out to improve the understanding of the sources and fate of N and S compounds in mine waters. Work under specific objective 2 will involve the recalibration, under dewatering conditions, of preexisting hydrogeological models developed in the pre-exploitation phase. The aim is to find solutions for optimizing hydrogeological and geochemical modelling of mine dewatering. Work under Specific Objective 3 will focus on building bridges between indigenous and western science to better identify areas where increased groundwater protection is required. The new knowledge generated by this research will allow a better assessment of the risks to water resources associated with mining projects and clarify the guidelines for evaluating the environmental impacts and social acceptability of mining projects. This research will enable the training of highly qualified personnel, including undergraduates (UG) in the applied hydrogeology microprogram at UQAT, which was specially developed for First Nations people. The results will provide governments and promoters with tools to optimize environmental assessment processes upstream of projects.