Asbestos mining residues exempt from final Canada asbestos ban
Canadian Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna has announced final regulations that will ban asbestos and products containing it by the end of this year, but concern has been expressed over the decision to exempt asbestos-mining residues.
RightOnCanada founder Kathleen Ruff has criticised the exemption of mining residues from the final asbestos regulations, stating that the federal government has rejected health experts’ advice on the exploitation of asbestos wastes.
Citing a written brief to the federal government, Ruff says that regional directors of public health in Quebec have expressed “grave concerns” regarding the health risk of projects associated with exploiting asbestos wastes, which contain up to 40% asbestos.
Quebec has an estimated 800-million tonnes of residue near the towns of Thetford Mines and Asbestos. Asbestos mining in Canada ceased in 2011.
One company involved in the exploitation of asbestos residue is privately owned Alliance Magnesium, which states that it uses patented electrolysis clean tech technology to produce magnesium from serpentine rock.
“Decades of chrysotile-asbestos mining in Quebec generated huge tailings of serpentine rock with 23.3% magnesium metal content, a highly valuable opportunity for metal extraction,” the company’s website states.
According to The Canadian Press, Alliance Magnesium president Joel Fournier does not believe it is “part of the problem, but rather part of the solution”. “Essentially, we are doing remediation.”
In the Canadian Press article, Fournier explains that the process that Alliance Magnesium uses destroys asbestos fibre left in the rock by soaking it in acid, leaving behind magnesium and amorphous silica.
Alliance Magnesium received C$30.9-million from the Quebec government earlier this year for its tailings project and according to Ruff, it is set to receive C$100-million in funding from the federal government.
In terms of the regulations announced this week, the import, sale, and use of asbestos, as well as the manufacture, import, sale and use of asbestos-containing products will be prohibited from December 30, 2018. There are some exclusions.
Asbestos was declared a human carcinogen in 1987.
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