Cassiar asbestos mine, near Yukon-B.C. border, one of province's most contaminated: mining watchdog

CBC

3 days ago

The Cassiar asbestos mine in B.C. closed back in 1992, but decades later, the B.C. Mining Law Reform Network says it remains among the most polluted mine sites in the province.
The mine recently made the organization's 2025 Dirty Dozen list. Co-chair Nikki Skuce said the network is increasingly hearing from former workers with health issues.
"Lung diseases and asbestos-related diseases, which are pretty deadly and awful, have a latency period of 10 to 40 years," she said.
Asbestos — minerals that can cause serious health concerns if breathed in — can no longer be imported, sold or used in Canada. Organizations like WorksafeBC say it still kills more workers in the province than anything else. Some workers and residents from the former Cassiar mine site have died from different lung diseases since the mine shuttered.
The site was taken over in 2003 by Cassiar Jade Contracting Inc., which purchased the mine's operating permit for $1 under the condition it would take on $50,000 worth of reclamation work annually. The company is now mining the site for jade.
Skuce said she is concerned about whether unsafe conditions persist at the mine.
"What are the precautions they're undertaking for that reclamation so they're not also exposing new people to asbestos?" she said.
Cassiar Jade president Tony Ritter said the mining and reclamation work performed at the site isn't dangerous.
"There's many safety regulations and stuff we would have to follow, and you know, working there now, we follow them," Ritter said. "There's provisions to make sure it's absolutely safe and nobody's exposed to anything that would be harmful to them.
"Throughout the history of the mine there and Cassiar, it was very safe," he added. When asked about reports of former workers with cancer, Ritter said it's not clear there's a connection to the mine.
"I couldn't say, I'm not a doctor," he said. "I certainly hope not, otherwise I would probably be pretty sick by now."
'Nobody ever told us it was dangerous'
Rose Peregoodoff grew up in Cassiar, just over 80 kilometres south of the Yukon border. Both her parents worked at the Cassiar mine.
"He was a drill blast foreman, so he was the guy that made the big bang," she said. "He was front and centre where they would blow up the mountaintop … and all that dust and everything … he would be inhaling."
She said he later developed asbestosis as well as mesothelioma, a cancer associated with exposure to asbestos.
"My mother used to shovel asbestos," she said. "Whatever fell off the conveyor belt in the mine drive, the ladies would shovel back onto the belt.
"So my mother was right there too, buried in asbestos. Now she has major lung problems. And, you know, we don't know if it's from the asbestos or not."
Peregoodoff said many children who lived in the town ended up being exposed as well. Former residents of Cassiar have described the clouds of dust from the mine that would fall on the town, covering the snow with a layer of green.
"We used to use it as papier mâché to make art projects in school," she said. "Heck, we used to play in the tailings pile. We'd slide down it in the summer with little boards and pretend we were sliding down a big snow hill."
Years later, as more and more people she knows have health issues, the idea that her lungs could be a ticking time bomb is always in the back of her mind.
"Nobody ever told us it was dangerous," she said. "In school, they would come in with these little trays and they'd have these different pieces of asbestos in there, and they'd say we're doing really well [at the mine]. These fibres are long, they're not going to be an issue when you're older."
In fact, studies have found that exposure to longer fibres actually increases the risk of lung cancer — although both long and short chrysotile asbestos fibres are toxic.
"We ate the snow when we were kids," Peregoodoff added. "Every kid eats snow. So how much asbestos did we ingest?"
Skuce said if people like Peregoodoff — who weren't employed by the mining company — develop health issues, it can be difficult for them to get support.
"One former resident we talked to grew up there eating snow covered in asbestos dust," she said. "Folks like him are left unable to get WorkSafeBC claims."
Progress of remediation efforts
Twenty years after the mine's sale, Cassiar Jade Contracting was fined $40,000 for failing to provide a reclamation plan to the province and repeatedly failing to comply with inspection orders, including occupational health and safety requirements.
During a hearing with the province, a manager with the Watson Lake-based company stated that shutdown orders from inspectors following asbestos exposure concerns stopped work at the site for around a year.
Ritter also told CBC that difficulties brought on by COVID, as well as a company they hired to complete the plan, created delays with the report, but said that reclamation work is underway.
The company eventually submitted a reclamation and closure plan in 2024. A few months later, the B.C. Ministry of Energy and Mines issued an order that will effectively end jade mining in northwestern B.C., citing challenges around permitting, compliance and enforcement in the remote region. The company has since launched a lawsuit against the province.
Peregoodoff believes regulators should have stepped in sooner to deal with the asbestos tailings pile at the site.
"Now, when the big winds come along and blow that dirt and dust everywhere, it's still contaminating the area," said Peregoodoff. "Like who knows what it's doing to the animals there and all the Tlingit and Tahltan and Kaska people that hunt up there."
"I'm sure there's some valid concerns there," said Ritter, when asked about Peregoodoff's concerns and the mine site's inclusion in the B.C. Mining Law Reform Network's list. "And to me, that would be another benefit [of continuing]."
Ritter said there is magnesium in the tailings pile that could be recovered and "enhance the reclamation process." They're also testing for copper and other minerals at the site.
Today, Cassiar, B.C., is a ghost town. But Ritter hopes the company's activities will spark new life in the region — and bring jobs to the neighbouring communities of Dease Lake in B.C and Watson Lake in the Yukon.