Atlas of Contaminated Sites

Notable case, Faro, Yukon, Canada

Faro Mine

Once the world's largest open-pit lead-zinc mine. Abandoned in 1998, it left 70 million tonnes of tailings and 320 million tonnes of waste rock that release acid and metals.

Status
Remediation under way
Area
2,500 ha on land1
Activity
1969–1998
Media
soil, surface water, groundwater
Kind of site
mining
National list
ListedFederal Contaminated Sites Inventory – Class 1, High Priority for Action / Inventaire des sites contaminés fédéraux – Classe 1, priorité d’intervention élevée
  1. Area. About 25 km². The coordinates are those of the town of Faro, near the mine.

Contaminants

Metals

Other inorganics

National list

Active (confirmed contamination, action under way or still required)Canada

Federal contaminated sites, High Priority for Action (Class 1) (Federal Contaminated Sites Inventory – Class 1, High Priority for Action / Inventaire des sites contaminés fédéraux – Classe 1, priorité d’intervention élevée)

Official id
C2503001 ↗

The whole list (1,791) →

About this list

Federal sites (land of federal departments, agencies and consolidated Crown corporations, plus non-federal sites for which Ottawa accepted financial responsibility) classified Class 1 under the CCME National Classification System for Contaminated Sites: the available information indicates that action (further characterization, risk management, remediation) is required to address existing concerns.

The class is the current one recorded in the inventory; for closed sites it is the last one assigned before closure. The FCSI does not publish when a site was classified or closed, so listed and delisted are empty. Contaminants are FCSI categories: 'metals', 'halogenated hydrocarbons' and other mixed categories stay in contaminants_raw only. custodian is the reporting federal organization. Eight sites have no name in the inventory: name is '[unnamed]' followed by custodian and place.

Status

Remediation under way

An interim water treatment plant has run since 2015 and the permanent one is under construction. The plan foresees about 15 years of active remediation, then more than ten years of operation and monitoring, and long-term management.

Story

The mine was opened in 1969 by the Cyprus Anvil Mining Corporation and later run by Curragh Resources (1985–1993) and the Anvil Range Mining Corporation (1995–1998), until it closed for good. The tailings and waste rock, exposed to air and water, release metals and acidity towards Rose Creek and Vangorda Creek.

The federal plan is to stabilise the materials in place: upgrading dams, reshaping and covering the tailings, channels to divert clean water, and expanded treatment of contaminated water. The site lies in the traditional territories of the Ross River Dena Council, the Liard First Nation, Kaska communities and the Selkirk First Nation.

Timeline

  1. 1969The mine opens.
  2. 1998Final closure.
  3. 2015Interim water treatment plant in operation.
  4. 2018The Government of Canada takes full responsibility for the site.

Remediation

  1. 2015water treatmentCollection and treatment of contaminated water, with an interim plant since 2015.
  2. —stabilise in placeDam upgrades, reshaping and covering of tailings, water diversion channels.

From the literature

Species that acted on one of this site's contaminants in at least one study. The list is automatic and takes no account of this site's soil, concentrations or climate.

Plants

Fungi

The rest are on the contaminant pages.

Sources

  1. Faro Mine Remediation Project, Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, 2026
  2. Faro, Yukon, Wikipedia, 2026

Draft compiled from public sources, not yet reviewed.