Environmental studies in the Qaumarujuk and Agfardlikavsâ fjords, Umanak district, central West Greenland

Abstract

Early in 1972 Greenex NS obtained a license for mining operations of the zinc-Iead occurrence at Marmorilik in the Umanak district of central West Greenland. Tailings from the flotation plant, totalling approximately 450 000 tons/year, are dumped in the fjord Agfardlikavsa (fig. 4). Understandably the local population demanded assurance that no toxic effects would harm their main source of living - fishery of prawn and fish, and prior to mining the Ministry for Greenland set stringent limits for the levels of waste products permissible. In order to gain some knowledge of the natural background level of, in particular, heavy metals in an area so far unaffected by mining operations or industrial pollution, it was decided to investigate the natural environment before mining operations started in the autumn of 1973.