Bamoos Lake

Marathon-area waterway

The "South Option", an alternative to the originally proposed Bamoos Lake, involves the loss of 44 ponds and 30 streams. One of the estimated twelve dams required for this option would be approximately 89 meters high – the height of a 27 story building - and half a kilometre wide. Located near Marathon, Ontario, these streams and ponds face destruction through a Schedule 2 exemption of the federal Fisheries Act. Marathon PGM Corporation, wants to mine a base metal-copper deposit and build a $385 million mine and mill. The proposed platinum, palladium and copper open pit mine would span approximately 1,000 hectares, roughly the same size of the Town of Marathon. The mining corporation projects that approximately 68,612 tonnes of mine rock will be produced daily during the 11-year project, for a total of 288 million tonnes. Annual tailings production is projected to be 5.3 million cubic metres, which would be dumped into the Marathon-area lakes. The ecosystem would be permanently damaged if tailings are dumped there under a Schedule 2 exemption. On October 7, 2010, the Environment Minister referred the matter to a review panel. Panel members have not been appointed yet.

Make your voice heard!

The Schedule 2 exemption for the 'South Option' affecting Marathon-area waterways should be scrapped. Contact your members of Parliament today to say “no” to Schedule 2 destroying healthy Canadian lakes and rivers. Contact these local MPs as well:

Bruce Hyer, federal Member of Parliament for the riding and the NDP’s deputy environment critic for water (bruce@brucehyer.ca)
Michael Gravelle, Member of the Provincial Parliament, the provincial Liberal government’s minister of northern development and mines (mgravelle.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org)

Join Citizens for a Responsible Mine in Marathon Ontario on Facebook.