Cassiar asbestos mine, near Yukon-B.C. border, one of province's most contaminated: mining watchdog

The Cassiar asbestos mine in B.C. closed back in 1992, but decades later, the B.C. Mining Law Reform Network says it remains among the most polluted mine sites in the province. 

The mine recently made the organization's 2025 Dirty Dozen list. Co-chair Nikki Skuce said the network is increasingly hearing from former workers with health issues. 

"Lung diseases and asbestos-related diseases, which are pretty deadly and awful, have a latency period of 10 to 40 years," she said. 

Asbestos — minerals that can cause serious health concerns if breathed in — can no longer be imported, sold or used in Canada. Organizations like WorksafeBC say it still kills more workers in the province than anything else. Some workers and residents from the former Cassiar mine site have died from different lung diseases since the mine shuttered.

The site was taken over in 2003 by Cassiar Jade Contracting Inc., which purchased the mine's operating permit for $1 under the condition it would take on $50,000 worth of reclamation work annually. The company is now mining the site for jade.

Skuce said she is concerned about whether unsafe conditions persist at the mine.

"What are the precautions they're undertaking for that reclamation so they're not also exposing new people to asbestos?" she said.

Cassiar Jade president Tony Ritter said the mining and reclamation work performed at the site isn't dangerous. 

"There's many safety regulations and stuff we would have to follow, and you know, working there now, we follow them," Ritter said. "There's provisions to make sure it's absolutely safe and nobody's exposed to anything that would be harmful to them.

"Throughout the history of the mine there and Cassiar, it was very safe," he added. When asked about reports of former workers with cancer, Ritter said it's not clear there's a connection to the mine.

"I couldn't say, I'm not a doctor," he said. "I certainly hope not, otherwise I would probably be pretty sick by now." 

Rose Peregoodoff grew up in Cassiar, just over 80 kilometres south of the Yukon border. Both her parents worked at the Cassiar mine.

"He was a drill blast foreman, so he was the guy that made the big bang," she said. "He was front and centre where they would blow up the mountaintop … and all that dust and everything … he would be inhaling." 

She said he later developed asbestosis as well as mesothelioma, a cancer associated with exposure to asbestos.