Mining has been and will continue to be the largest industry in the Yukon.
It provides well-paying jobs to the region. It also produces an exportable good, which helps Canada’s balance of trade. It creates prosperity that we all enjoy.
To remove large parts of the territory from potential mining would be very short sighted.
There are 23 different mined minerals that make up the components of our cell phones and laptops.
A large number of these minerals are found in the Yukon.
Some specialty minerals such as tantalum, which is used to make cell phone and laptop batteries, are found in pegmatites in the southeast part of the Yukon.
Gold, which is used for silicon chip circuitry, is found throughout the Yukon.
Copper, which is used for circuitry and to build houses, is found in the central Yukon.
There are five hundred pounds of copper in the average North American house.
People argue that the tailings from sulphide deposit mining, namely the oxidation of the sulphides in the tailings causing acid drainage, are very harmful to the environment.
Though that has been the case up until the last 20 years, there are new methods to deal with acid drainage.
The latest very promising research being done uses carbon dioxide, thus dealing with two problems at once - acid drainage and CO2 emissions - with the end product being water.
So a tailings drainage argument is outdated.
The Peel area has the potential to produce the minerals we want for our modern lives, minerals for products we use every day.
So, do you still want large chunks of the Yukon off limits to mining?
If you do, then ditch the cell phones, laptops and Priuses or you will be considered a hypocrite.
Lisle Gatenby
Dawson City