Historic mercury and heavy metal deposition in Flin Flon, Manitoba reconstructed from lake sediment cores

The Flin Flon copper–zinc smelter is a site of concern as it has been the largest single source of atmospheric mercury emissions in Canada until operations ceased on July 1, 2010. The smelting and mining activities resulted in mercury contamination to the local environment. Elevated levels of mercury and other trace metals were found in soil humus, peat, plants, fish and sediment cores. The Flin Flon smelter of the Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Company is located near the Manitoba–Saskatchewan border, 600 km Northwest of Winnipeg and over 400 km away from other major industrial complexes.This study examined nine lakes (Nekik, Douglas, Loucks, Phantom, McClurg, Cleaver, Naosep, Hamel, and Meridian) each lake was located at varying differences within 75 km of the smelter stack these lakes were selected for sediment coring analysis and heavy metal deposition trends. Given the significant legacy of contamination of the Flin Flon region by mercury and other heavy metals emitted by the smelter complex, the region should remain a concern and deserves further study. All data are subjects of a publication containing method details, full QA/QC, interpretations and conclusions. Citation:…

Publisher

Environment and Climate Change Canada

Resources

4

Catalogue metadata updated

2026-03-16