From critical minerals to critical reclamation: Implementing an anticolonial ethics of reclamation for the Faro Mine, in Tsē Zūl, Dena Kēyeh (unceded Kaska Lands, Yukon, Canada)
Bibliographic record
Abstract
As the Canadian government renews promotions for so-called ‘critical minerals’ extraction across Northern Canada, local communities are grappling with both the legacies of abandoned sites and new articulations (or co-optations) of sustainability in the context of green energy. With this drive for increased mining, the need for nuanced discussions about reclamation are critical. The Faro Mine, a lead-zinc mine that operated from 1969-1999, is one of the largest reclamation sites in Canada. Located in Tsē Zūl, on unceded Tū Łídlīni (Ross River) Kaska Dena Land, the mine inflicted countless harms on the community and Dena Kēyeh (Dena Land). For decades Tū Łídlīni Dena have been demanding that both mining and reclamation be done differently, in a way that respects Kaska stewardship and governance. Through participatory action and placebased research, in partnership with Ross River Dena Council (RRDC), this PhD aims to re-think reclamation and unearth possibilities for ethical, community-driven approaches to repairing contaminated landscapes. Grounded in the direction and priorities of Tū Łídlīni Dena Elders, this research focuses first on analyzing the ‘infrastructures of theft’ at Faro, including the mineral permitting, welfare state policies, and water licensing that facilitated the theft of unceded Kaska Land and Water. I then trace how these historic mechanisms of theft have morphed into the contemporary impact assessment and regulatory processes guiding reclamation work at Faro. A second key priority for this community-based research was to build reclamation alternatives based in Kaska knowledge, drawing on the long history of Tū Łídlīni Dena resistance to the Faro Mine. Therefore, part of my work included supporting and documenting the implementation of a community-based revegetation program, centered in healing. While pointing to the root causes of violence and contamination at Faro, this research simultaneously celebrates all the relationships that have persisted, that are hard fought for in the face of pervasive racism, colonialism, and extractivism. This resistance is exemplified in the stories, experiences, community planning, and alternatives that have been articulated by Tū Łídlīni Dena for decades. These alternatives are what form the very basis of anti-colonial reclamation, and the imagining of future human-environment relationships based in Indigenous lands, community, and governance.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.009 | 0.006 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.049 | 0.058 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.012 | 0.005 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.007 |
| Research integrity | 0.005 | 0.007 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".