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A Nunavut review agency’s approval on Friday of a massive, $4-billion iron mine on Baffin Island not only green-lights one of the biggest industrial projects ever in the Canadian Arctic, it also offers some belated vindication for Sir Martin Frobisher, the 16th-century English explorer who dreamed that Baffin’s rocks might someday yield unimaginable riches.
Though Frobisher’s own quest for gold in the future Nunavut was proven futile by the end of the 1570s, his perilous voyages to what was then the outer limit of the known world set the stage for British — and ultimately Canadian — sovereignty over the vast Arctic archipelago, including Baffin Island and the colossal Mary River ore deposit now set to be mined by Toronto-based Baffinland Iron Mines Corp.
The planned mine and town site, located near the island’s northern tip, would see almost 20 million tonnes of high-grade iron ore excavated annually from a huge open-pit operation, transported 150 kilometres south along the world’s northernmost railroad to a new deep-water Arctic port, then shipped to European smelters on a fleet of mammoth, custom-made ice-breaking barges.
The ships’ steady stream of transatlantic journeys — expected to continue for about 20 years — would be considerably faster in August and September if, as many scientists now expect after six straight years of record-setting ice retreats, the Arctic begins to experience ice-free summers in the near future.
After years of study and months of public hearings, the proposed mine was granted approval on Friday by the Nunavut Impact Review Board. But highlighting the importance of environmental monitoring and the need to improve social infrastructure in several nearby Baffin Island communities, the agency attached more than 180 terms and conditions to its recommendation to the federal government that the project proceed to regulatory assessment.
“During the final hearing, the board heard concerns expressed that when facing development many Nunavummiut (citizens of Nunavut) feel caught between two worlds: their hopes for development to yield lasting and sustainable benefits to individuals, communities, their region, Nunavut and Canada in general; and their concerns regarding potential negative impacts on the air, land, water, fish, wildlife, marine mammals, traditional areas, traditional ways and communities,” the NIRB stated in its decision. “The board understands these hopes and concerns and sees thorough impact assessment as a way to bridge the gap between these worlds by ensuring that only development which will ensure the future well-being of Nunavut residents and that protects our land, water and resources be allowed to proceed.”
Okalik Eegeesiak, president of the Qikiqtani Inuit Association, said her organization — which represents citizens from Pond Inlet, Igloolik and other communities located near the mine site — was partly swayed to back the project by the “mutual respect” shared between Baffinland officials and Nunavut residents as the contentious proposal was painstakingly examined over the past four years.
“One of our biggest concerns was the lack of infrastructure in the communities,” she told Postmedia News on Monday. “We need better health services, education and housing to meet the demands here now. How will we handle them when the development starts?”
But she said the long list of conditions placed on the project by the NIRB — many the result of QIA’s own analyses of the mine’s likely effects on the land and the communities — should “reassure Inuit that the impacts will be minimal.”
For the rest of this article, please go to the Montreal Gazette website: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/canada/Baffin+Island+mega+mine+gets+green+light+from+Nunavut+agency/7255957/story.html