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“Changes in the health of caribou because of project activities are unlikely”
Baffinland Iron Mines Corp. has responded to recommendations from the Nunavut Impact Review Board, but the company doesn’t plan to follow many of them at its Mary River mine site.
The NIRB’s 2013-14 monitoring report -— designed to keep Mary River in compliance with its project certificate — did not raise any issues of significant concern, but made some recommendations following a September 2014 site visit.
Most had to do with different wildlife monitoring and waste management programs at the Baffin site, like the NIRB’s recommendation to analyse dust-fall or ash in caribou pellets.
Baffinland said it would continue to gather caribou fecal pellet samples for different kinds of monitoring, but that the program would be limited because there are so few caribou in the project area.
“Samples will be analyzed for ash content when a sufficient sample of fresh pellets are collected,” read Baffinland’s Dec. 12 response to the NIRB.
But Baffinland says it has not and will not monitor the organ tissue of caribou for metals — a condition of the project certificate — outside the support of the Government of Nunavut’s caribou health monitoring program.
“Changes in the health of caribou because of project activities are unlikely,” Baffinland said in its response. “Baffinland will not collect organ tissues until there are indications of risk of increased metals uptake by caribou as a result of the project.”
Another NIRB recommendation asked the company to install flashing red or white strobe lights on communication towers to deter birds.
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