Polymetallic mining contamination in Rouyn-Noranda monitored by biomonitors

While mining activities in Quebec date back to the 1840s, the industry is currently evolving towards the extraction of critical and strategic minerals. This evolution presents new environmental issues, distinct from those associated with historical activities. There is therefore an urgent and growing need to acquire the knowledge required to implement concrete environmental protection actions to safeguard our ecosystems. The development of biomonitoring strategies has demonstrated its added value in improving our ability to adequately assess these environmental impacts. Biomonitors provide rigorous scientific information to better characterize the state of health of a given ecosystem, document the history and spatial dispersion of contamination, and provide information on emission sources and the environmental effects of contamination. Our aim is to develop biomonitoring tools capable of characterizing polymetallic contamination in aquatic ecosystems disturbed by mining activities. Focusing on mining activities in the Rouyn-Noranda region (Abitibi-Témiscamingue) over the past 90 years, our research project will use this “environmental laboratory” as a representative of the impact of mining activities on Quebec's aquatic ecosystems. Our project has three specific objectives:

i) Assess the suitability of biofilms and invertebrates as biomonitors of aquatic polymetallic contamination. To answer this question, we will use factors influencing the uptake of trace metals (TMEs) and isotopic analyses to constrain the links between sources of emission and contamination.

ii) Determine the effects and identify potential biomarkers of metal contamination of mining origin on fish species, using the assay of multiple enzymatic parameters, studies on the subcellular fate of metals and their molecular targets.

iii) Assess human exposure to TMEs by studying the consumption of foodstuffs contaminated by mining activities.

Taken together, these results will shed new light on the ability of a multi-biomonitor approach to better assess the impact of metal contaminants from mining activities on the environment and on human populations. This project will contribute to the development of biomonitoring strategies applicable not only to the Rouyn-Noranda region, but also to all provincial and national aquatic ecosystems. In the long term, these advances will enable more mining projects to be carried out in a sustainable manner, while protecting our aquatic ecosystems.