Making 200,000 tons of arsenic dust safe 

There's an error in this video: I say "200,000 tonnes of gold", but that's actually 200,000kg. The 200,000 tonne figure is for arsenic dust. You can see all corrections for this channel at www.tomscott.com/corrections/

Mine produced 8 billion of gold, and went 'bankrupt', Canadian tax payers are paying 900 million to contain the deadly arsenic for 100 years. The lake and surrounding area are still off limits. One of the worst trade deals in history.

> mines 8 billion USD of gold > goes bankrupt

“our work here could literally kill everybody on earth multiple times” “yea but g o l d”

When you said that mine was close to the city, I thought it was a fair bit away. Until I looked at google earth. Holy crap that is terrifying. The mine is basically within the city limits.

There are posters up in Yellowknife, advising of free arsenic tests for people who've lived there a long time. Do pull down the description for more about the history - it's a story that one person visiting for a couple of days definitely isn't qualified to tell!

"Enough to kill everyone on earth several times over" is something we need to focus on more I think

"This project has gotten approval for 100 years." Has it gotten funding for 100 years?

The hell, is Tom Scott trying to get himself killed in Canada? Tempts fate at the US/Canada border, goes to the fatherland of Asbestos, makes a video about floods and fire, slips on ice, now he's trying to get hypothermia AND being poisoned??

_Leaving 200.000 tons of toxic mess_ *Sorry*

It's basically the Balrog. We got so greedy digging for riches that we dug up something that could kill us all if it doesn't stay dormant forever...

Thank you very much Scott. I once studied at *McGill University* , and one of my peers actually worked on the thermodynamic aspects of Arsenic Oxides. The experimentations were very challenging and required complex approvals, but it would be very rewarding for him to know that his work contributes to remediation projects exactly like this one, and more people could come to appreciate the endeavor thanks to your channel.

It's disgusting how mining companies can get away with declaring bankruptcy and then bugger off without having to do anything about the poisons they've left (since, "obviously", it would be wrong to hold the owners of the company responsible for the company's actions and debts /s).

Tom, thanks for the video. I am now completely outraged about how poorly managed mine cleanup has been regulated in my country. Since 2004 I'm sure legislation has been enacted to hold those accountable for environmental damage and careless disregard for the environment doesn't go unpunished...but then I remembered the Mt. Polly mining disaster of 2015.

Whenever people bring up 'nuclear waste' as a concern for power plants I really can't help but think about things like this, and how much safer and easier to deal with nuclear 'waste' actually is compared to so many other kinds of industrial waste.

I like that in Canada they use hockey rink technology to freeze lethal poison. You can just imagine the pitch meeting, some executive just sat there not understanding the science and the scientist just says "like they do for hockey" and the executive's just like "I'm in"

This was very interesting, but also extremely scary... Still nice video as usual!

"It has no scent, no taste, and dissolves in water." Arsenic trioxide is iocane power!

"summer of 2020" - well that didn't age well

8 Billion of Gold Bankrupt 1 Billion to cure

I wouldn’t believe it was a dispatch from Canada if there weren’t a hockey analogy 🇨🇦

Wow, that would just be the worst luck if a bolide/meteor hit right around that area...

for anyone wondering, the difference between a "thermosiphon" and a "heat pipe" is that a thermosiphon uses gravity to return the working fluid to the source end, and a heat pipe uses a porous "wick" layer on the walls of the tube. They are otherwise identical in operation and theory.

This solution reminds me very much of the solution they have been trying to contain the, now radioactive, groundwater in Fukushima. In terms of method it's almost identical, although using different methods to reduces temperature; not to mention it might actually work up in Canada, due to the extremely cold temperatures. Anyways, thanks for the great video Mr. Scott & others!

Tom thank you for the time and effort put into these videos

As2O3 powder is *slightly* soluble, it happily sits ontop of the surface of water. It is also great fun to find out you got some in the lab . I've spent half a day unknowingly handling it... 200,000 tons make roughly 151,000 tons of metal, which could be stored in a roughly 30^3m cube. That's something I'd go out of my way to visit on an other continent.

Recently discovered your channel, and I've got to say ,I love it. Interesting, well informed, and not opinionated. Just facts. Very well done indeed

Great video Tom. A story of multiple B'stards. The mining company directors and shareholders who were not compelled to lose their assets until the problem was fixed. The local and national Govt officials who were not compelled to lose their assets until the problem was fixed. And so on.

how do you continually manage to find subjects and titles that immediately grabs my attention and makes me think "hmm that sounds interesting". always quality content Tom and team, thank you

One thing I've always been curious about when watching Tom's videos is how all his travel is financed. Does RU-vid pay that well for a channel of his size? Or is he being sponsored by someone, like a university or business? Inquiring minds want to know!

Excelent video. As a canadian I've been loving this series and hope you come back through my country again in the future.

Remember folks, government regulations kill jobs, but lack of regulation kills all of humanity several times over...

I bet the ex CEOs of that company are still alive and CEOs of another company. They should still be liable for this. Put a lean on them and their million dollar home

Hmm, I wonder if Tom ever made it to Britannia Beach. It's a place in BC, Canada where a remediation project like this has more or less played its part. There was some major acid rock drainage issues (basically, water leaching sulfur out of the rock and becoming acidic) in that mine, and then flowing out of the mine and into the environment - they sealed up most of the exits, and fed the other ones into a water treatment plant. Again, not a perfect solution, but it's effective and will remain so as long as the government maintains their policy about fixing the industrial mistakes we've made. Plus, that one does have a time limit. Eventually all that rock will be weathered out, same as the rock that's naturally exposed on the surface of sulfide deposits, at which point the acid formation process will stop; a while after that, the water being drained from the mine will become neutralized, and the need for water treatment will stop.

Tom, love the videos! Started watching during furlough. Thank you! So many cool videos!!!

I lived most of my childhood in yellowknife and there wer times when the arsnic problem felt like our own Armageddon looming over everyone heads. Thanks giant mine very cool. Also the near by lake of great slave lake is still accessible to the public despite one of the most popular docks being very close to the mine. The sign that he showed in the video was for a lake that is in the heart of yellowknife itself that I believe is considered unsafe for separate reasons though I could be wrong. Didnt stop me from running in their and freezing my balls off one spring

Super interesting! Did an entire project about this issue in one of my Environmental Studies classes.

Mining companies do this all the time "Go bankrupt" i.e. Walk away. We need them to be paying a percentage into a frozen environmental cleanup account as production occurs to cover the cost when they inevitably dry out the mine.

What a huge mess. Thanks for shedding light on this

So... with the correction to 200,000 kg (7,054,792 ounces) of gold that was extracted from Giant Mine. At today's (Feb. 2013) gold price of $2300/oz CDN, that would be $16,226,022,497 (or a tad over $16 billion) CDN.

How come they don't do anything like vitrification (collect the dust and then encase it in moltern glass), which is what they do to radioactive waste. Glass is really durable long term and makes a lot of sense for radioactive waste, and surely that less maintenance and as such less cost than dealing with these cooling pipes which lets not forget if they fail the arsenic will become dust again and be just as dangerous

Hey, they use thermosiphons in Alaska (and some other places in the arctic) to keep the permafrost frozen year round around buildings as global warming is causing more and more issues because foundations get unstable when the permafrost starts to defrost in the summer. I think they also use them in Oak Ridge, TN to keep some pools of toxic waste frozen as well.

Hey Tom, some time back i watched a Periodic videos video, and the professor said that all the gold in the world occupies a 20m cube. I calculated the weight of that cube and i got about 154000 tons. In your video you said about 200 thousand tons were extracted from the mine. I know the cube is a rough aprox. but the values are completely off. I dont know about gold extraction but that value is absurdly high. Love your videos and your channels. Cheers

I'd love to see more videos about hazard containment - I think it illustrates really well the value of this work.

I live in Yellowknfe and I did a heritage project on giant mine

So, between this and Asbestos, Canada has kind of a sh*tty history when it comes to industry and environmental protection, doesn't it?

I really enjoy your videos. Thanks for making them.

I do seriously love this channel 🙂.

Can it be reacted with something to make it less lethal or even inert?

If the freezing stops, couldn't the resulting thawing create cracks in the rock resulting in more water entering the Chambers?

I live in Yellowknife and was searching up Yellowknife on youtube but little did I know that TOM SCOTT has been here

placer dome campbell mine had the same problem and got it cleaned up. it was moved back to the surface mill and put it through what is called an autoclave

Hmm! I am surprised there isn't a stable compound that Arsenic can't be made into. Might have to research this.

...no pressure!

The solution could be Chem grouting / HaywardBaker does sodium glycol with diabasic Ester to stop erosion and stabilize soils particular sands and rock but will stabilize silts or atleast seal them from water as the chem grout does not breakdown from water. I have use this process many times for construction of drill shafts and MSE wall foundation stability. The material is fracked in but is a basic mix and pump material, then hardening will occur based on time and component percentages. Sometimes other disciplines can be the answer. Good luck as this could be your answer I hope.

would love to see a follow up video with these people, seems like an interesting project

So wait, the taxpayers are paying to clean up this corporate's mess?

So this system depends on having a thermal differential between the ground and the air, what happens when global warming comes along and fucks that up?

What Tom Scott doesn't say is that the gold was contained in arsenopyrite ore. So when the ore was processed, the arsenic oxide was the residue after processing. Given that arsenic can be used in solar cells, maybe the arsenic residue may be reclaimed for other uses in the future. Arsenic has uses in treating timber to make it termite resistant as well as other uses. Another example of arsenic poisoning was the aid schemes to dig wells or put in bores to get clean water in third world countries. Problem was the underground water in some areas had high levels of arsenic.

I live in Yellowknife. Having this arsenic right next to my home is sometimes nerve racking lmao.

Could you possibly do a video on the geothermal center in Yellowstone if you get the chance?

So this is a problem because the mining company removed the rock above it? Can't they just... put the rock back? Or, rather, use concrete? Alternatively, if they've got these giant vats full of of arsenic dust, why not put them on trucks, bring them further north, where there IS permafrost, and bury them there? I'm sure they thought this through and came to the most logical, cheapest, most effective solution, but I'd still be interested to know what the issues were with any possible alternatives.

One of the best T.S. videos in ages

On the topic of nwt canadian mining towns, you should do a video on pinepoint, the town that dissapeared. Super interesting!

slow but effective way to chill something.

I didn't have "Arsenic Dust Cloud" on my 2020 Apocalypse Bingo card.

its fascinating that there are so many videos of tom with a hardhat on

Asbestos, arsenic... what's next? Uranium City?

Mining company extracts 8 billion in resources and leaves 1 billion dollars worth of mess. When will these companies start paying the true cost.

" *I DECLARE BANKRUPTCY.....!!* "

The shocking thing about this is that in contrast to for example radioactive materials, nobody talks about it despite it arguably being even more dangerous.

I'd love to see an update on this!

Anyone else feel like this is a bit SCP feeling?

How is this a solution? A billion + and will need to be serviced , maintained, powered forever?

The way they contain this stuff really giving me SCP vibes

YO I live here and I just realized Tom Scott has visited my home town.

Whoa, hidden cost of Canadian gold coins right there

200,000 tons of gold taken out in the 20th century? Isn't the world total of mined gold about 175,000 tons?

Classic example of one entity reaps and the rest are left to deal with the mess

This is incredible. Look all the work to be done after mining, for ever! At least with the technology we have nowadays. Lot of work, energy, and money to fix something the companies who profit with the mining won't ever fix. Devastating.

please make a video on the amazon warehouse robots, or just do a robot series - would be dope!!

200,000 tons of gold is 400,000,000 pounds, meaning the price in today’s (US) Dollars would be 8 TRILLION dollars, not 8 billion. I think Tom meant to say they mined 200,000 POUNDS of gold, not tons.

Got 8billion D worth of Gold and went bankrupt, now need billions and decades to clean up the mess. Hats off

kind of surprised mining companies dont have to kick in to a remediation fund as they are mining. Build their fund large enough to cover any mess they leave behind. Either they clean it up or we clean it up. After the site passes inspection they can have any unused funds back.

“We’re going to use a technology called thermosiphon technology and it’s basically a technology...”

💪 Ah, *Yellowknife* - the most badass sounding place in all of the world... That, and *Warrior*, Alabama. Seriously. Look it up. I'll wait. 😃

"No scent, no taste, and it dissolves in water." A-ha! We've found the iocaine powder from The Princess Bride!

I seriously wonder what future civilizations will think of places like this. When they're no longer being maintained, will there be big obelisks planted to ward off explorers?

Why dont they reuse the arsenic? Just get a couple hundredthousand tons of gallium and you never run out of GaAs / circuit material. :D

200,000 tons of gold? I think you're getting those pesky numbers mixed up mate.

Thank you for bringing this to light although I believe you could probably spend a few lifetimes doing that in North America alone.

If you're in Canada you should do a video on Point Roberts, an exclave of the USA only accessible by going through Canada

hi this is the future, we decided environmental concerns can be put on hold everytime the political parties switch, so we're probably making the same mistakes

This is what happens when you allow companies to privatise profits and socialize expenses. That the mining company would go bankrupt isn't surprising - the moment a mine stops being profitable, the company that owns it has no incentive to keep running, because now it's all just expenses. Far cheaper to just declare bankruptcy and go "woops - we forgot to put money aside for the clean-up.". And while regulations are great, those only work in places that care about them, like Canada. What are the regulations and the consequences for owners (however many links removed) if those regulations aren't upheld in places like Uzbekistan , Indonesia, Dominican Republic, Peru, Russia and Argentina? Those house 6 of the 10 largest goldmines currently in operation, and where Giant Mine produced 7 million troy ounces and 200,000 tons of arsenic dust in its lifetime, the largest gold mine (in Uzbekistan) produced 5.1 million troy ounces in 2013 and 2014 alone, and an estimated 170 million troy ounces before it's depleted. While I'm sure the Uzbekistan peoples are wonderful people, the country is rated 157th of 180 countries on the Transparency International corruption index (that's really bad). Fyi, Argentina is 85th, Indonesia and Peru are in joint 96th, Dominican Republic and Russia are in joint 135th. That doesn't exactly make me feel confident about their ability and willingness to take serious measures against just leaving this kind of crap around.

Hey, a video with metric, how nice :)

“Ey bill what do we call this big mine?” “Idk James, How about Giant Mine”

Why this dont pop up on my sub?

Haha if you look on Google maps Great Mine is tagged a a three out of five Tourist Attraction. Two stars for lethal levels of arsenic :)

There is also a mine called “diamond mine” up in Yellowknife too

Gonsta need an update video here soon Tom