Together with SkeenaWild Conservation Trust, we have produced an interactive online map of tailings facilities in B.C. The map provides communities with critical information about the risks posed by billions of cubic metres of toxic wet mine waste, called tailings, stored behind some of the highest dams in the world.
Alongside the map, we commissioned Dr. Steven Emerman, a respected geophysicist and international expert specializing in groundwater and mining, to review the 86 existing and proposed mines in B.C.
Read Dr. Emerman’s analysis
Read our primer summarizing his findings
Explore the map
Climate change-related extreme weather, such as the atmospheric rivers B.C. experienced in 2021, is exacerbating the risk that tailings dams could fail. A dam failure could result in serious consequences, including loss of life, damage to roads and infrastructure, and destruction of ecosystems, including salmon watersheds, worse than what happened at Mount Polley in 2014.