4 April
2008 - The Nalunaq Gold Mine in South Greenland
40 km north-east of Nanortalik. The Mine
started operations in 2004. Photo: Christian
M. Glahder/NERI
By Steen Voigt
Contamination from the
gold mine in the Nalunaq area, Natortalik
municipality in South Greenland , has levelled
off both spatially and in terms of impact
on plants and animals during the latest
years. The main impact from mining activities
is now observed in lichens in the Kirkespir
Valley especially in the surroundings of
the mine itself, around the waste rock depot
and along the gravel road from the mine
to the Kirkespir Bay .
This fourth monitoring
study, performed in July 2007 by National
Environmental Research Institute (NERI),
University of Aarhus , Denmark , analysed
samples from the environment for 12 elements
and found elevated concentrations of copper,
chromium, arsenic and cobalt in lichens
due to dust pollution in the surroundings
of the mine, the depot and up to 1000 meters
from the road.
Because metals are excreted
from lichens at a low rate it can be difficult
to detect a reduction in dust pollution.
In 2007 the scientists therefore transplanted
lichens from an unpolluted area to the Nalunaq
area. By analyzing these this summer the
rate of dust pollution can be determined.
In the Kirkespir River
and in the Kirkespir Bay , element elevations
were few and the impacted area was as small
as in 2006.
The Nalunaq Gold Mine
started operations in 2004 and the mine
and the camp is situated eight kilometres
from the coast. The mine has no processing
facilities on the site and ore is transported
by trucks from the camp area to at stockpile
area at the port facility of the bay. From
here the ore is shipped to gold extraction
plants in Spain and – from 2007 – in Canada
. From August 2006 until July 2007 a total
of 120.000 tonnes of ore were shipped to
the plants distributed on one shipment to
the plant in Spain and six shipments to
the plant in Canada .
The Nalunaq gold deposit
is high-grade with c. 20 g gold/ton ore.
Senior scientist Christian M. Glahder
