Federal government gets permit to remediate uranium exploration site near Łutselk'e, N.W.T.

The federal government has received a land-use permit to begin remediating a once-abandoned uranium exploration site near Łutselk'e, N.W.T., in the summer of 2025. 

The Stark Lake site is about 22 kilometres east of Łutselk'e, and it was used to explore for uranium in the '40s and '50s. The federal government took responsibility for the site when it was abandoned in 1969. 

A closure and reclamation plan developed by infrastructure consulting firm AECOM and published last year said the area has moderate levels of contamination, including low-level, naturally occurring radioactive waste rock. 

James Marlowe, the chief of the Łutselk'e Dene First Nation, hopes the clean up is thorough and that people can hunt and fish in the area without fear of radioactive material — like they did before exploration began. 

"It's a special place," he said. 

"Bringing the environment back to its natural state, that's what we want." 

The Stark Lake site consists of a camp area on the shore of Regina Bay and a mining site less than a kilometre inland. 

According to Crown Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada (CIRNAC), the area was staked in 1949 and optioned to Ridley Mines Holding Ltd. More exploration happened in the early '50s but it stopped in 1954 because there wasn't enough ore and it was low-grade. 

CIRNAC said the Hudson's Bay Oil and Gas Company Ltd. later did geophysical work at Stark Lake in 1969. In that same year, the site was abandoned and the federal government took responsibility for it. 

Archival photos illustrate what life was like at the site in the early 1950s, while photos embedded in the reclamation plan show what it looks like now. The entrance into the mine shaft, called an "adit," is covered in rocky rubble but is still partially open. There are also dilapidated wooden buildings, huge piles of waste rock, rusted pieces of equipment and dozens of old batteries and tin cans. 

The Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board granted CIRNAC a five-year land use permit for the remediation project in mid-February. 

According to that permit, the remediation work includes sealing mine shafts, managing more than 1,000 cubic metres of waste rock "through engineering controls," burning and hauling away material, and demolishing structures. 

CBC News asked CIRNAC how much of the waste rock at the mine site is believed to be radioactive and what, specifically, was being done with that material. The federal department did not respond by deadline. 

According to Canada's Treasury Board, the government has spent a little more than $2.5 million assessing and preparing the old mine site for clean up so far. In an email to CBC News earlier this month, CIRNAC said it couldn't say how much the project will cost until it finds a contractor to do the work.