Strateco seeks to force deal on disputed uranium mine – by Jordan Fletcher (Globe and Mail – December 10, 2013)

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The battle over uranium mining in northern Quebec is heating up again. Strateco Resources Inc. petitioned a Quebec court on Dec. 5, seeking to force the province’s environmental minister to allow underground uranium exploration at the company’s Matoush project, located in the Otish mountains 200 kilometres northeast of Mistissini.

Quebec’s Minister of Sustainable Development, the Environment, Wildlife and Parks had denied Strateco’s permit on Nov. 7 after the local Mistissini Cree community refused to consent to uranium development near its hunting grounds and trap lines.

“Many Cree work in the mining industry; we are not anti-development,” said Cree Grand Chief Matthew Coon Come. “But uranium is a special case. The tailings will remain toxic for hundreds of thousands of years. It is a burden for future generations that we are not prepared to assume.”

Strateco’s CEO, Guy Herbert, said the Matoush project is crucial to the development of the company’s assets in northern Quebec.
He estimated that the project could produce 30 million pounds of some of the highest-grade uranium in the world – worth roughly $1.7-billion at current market prices – and channel $800-million to Quebec over 10 years.

He said the company has invested almost $125-million in the project since 2006 and obtained 22 permits from the environmental ministry. He said the authorization at issue now would be the final hurdle in its protracted fight to move the project forward.

“We have the law on our side,” Mr. Herbert said. “This is public land. … We have the right in Quebec to mine uranium.”

But the Cree view Strateco’s legal wrangling as a last-ditch attempt to undermine their rights under the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement of 1975.

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