TAILINGS DUST STORMS IN CREIGHTON

Saskatchewan Environment and Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Co. Ltd. (HBM&S) have committed to resolving problems of blowing tailings dust in Creighton. Strong winds December 6th, 2002, and again January 8th and 9th, 2003 resulted in the Town of Creighton experiencing significant dust storms from the tailings management area.

"These incidents are regrettable and officials with Saskatchewan Environment, and the Health Authority are working with town officials, residents and HBM&S to prevent further events and to determine implications for residents," Environment Minister Buckley Belanger said.

A Tailings Management Area Working group consisting of Creighton council, town residents, HBM&S, Mamawetan Churchill River Regional Health Authority, Saskatchewan Environment and Manitoba Conservation has been established to work on resolving the community issues. Various dust suppression methods have been implemented on the tailings pond, including wetting/icing down the area with water and fire fighting foam, flooding of the tailings, constructing wind berms and covering problem areas with clean sand and tree branches. Additional air quality monitoring equipment has been relocated to the Creighton school and HBM&S will be adding more monitoring capabilities.

HBM&S executives have committed to solving the problem of dusting and Environment will continue to work closely with HBM&S to ensure that adequate measures and procedures are in place to control/prevent dusting events in the future.

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For More Information, Contact:

Brent Keevill Environment La Ronge Phone: (306)425-4658