Abandoned Mines Project Expands to Arctic Sites

Thanks to a recently received grant from ArcticNet, the Abandoned Mines in Northern Canada project is expanding to include new sites, new researchers and new questions. Abandoned Mines researchers Arn Keeling and John Sandlos are investigators on a new project examining “Adaptation, Industrial Development and Arctic Communities: Experiences of environmental and social change,” funded through the recent ArcticNet Social and Human Health Sciences special call for projects. Also working with the on the project are Dr. Emilie Cameron, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia (and no stranger to NiCHE), and Dr. Frank Tester of the School of Social Work at UBC and the Department of Native Studies at the University of Manitoba.

The project, initially funded for one year, will examine the impacts of and responses to mineral-driven industrial development and resettlement in the Arctic through community-based research and historical-geographical analysis. Researchers will undertake fieldwork in three Nunavut communities, Kugluktuk (Coppermine) in the Kitikmeot region, Qamani’ tuaq (Baker Lake) and Kangiqiniq (Rankin Inlet) in the Kivalliq region. All three communities have a history of engagement with industrial mining operations, and are currently encountering large-scale mineral exploration activities and development proposals in their regions, which present both opportunities and uncertainties related to work, economic development, social and cultural change, and environmental impacts. The grant will also support student research and training, as well as the employment and training of community researchers.