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AND minister accepts review board’s recommendations for Meliadine project
Nunavut’s future appears flecked with more gold after the process leading towards a second gold mine in the territory took a big step forward this week.
That’s after the federal government accepted the Nunavut Impact Review Board’s recommendations — submitted in October 2014 and anchored by 127 terms and conditions — to approve the Meliadine gold mine in the territory’s Kivalliq region.
“It is evident that the board met its primary objectives … to protect and promote the existing and future well-being of the residents and communities of Nunavut, to protect the eco-systemic integrity of the Nunavut settlement area and to take into account the well-being of residents of Canada outside of the Nunavut settlement area,” Bernard Valcourt, minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, said in a Jan. 27 letter to the review board.
The board issued its own letter Jan. 27, emphasizing the importance of the terms and conditions attached to its recommendations for the proposed project, owned by mining firm Agnico Eagle — which operates Nunavut’s only working gold mine at Meadowbank, about 70 km outside Baker Lake.
“The board would like to ensure that all associated terms and conditions are clearly understood by the responsible parties and are clarified where necessary to allow for full implementation and incorporation into applicable regulatory instruments,” wrote Elizabeth Copland, the board’s chair.
The Meliadine project, about 24 kilometers north of Rankin Inlet, would consist of one underground mine and five open pits, with a network of access roads, including, eventually, a two-lane all-weather road to the nearby Kivalliq community.
During its construction phase, the project would employ about 1,000 people, and about 750 people after mining operations start up.
The two-lane all-weather road, which would be an expansion of the current one-lane restricted all-weather road, would be open to the public, with access to Meliadine Lake.
But the network of roads, and their impact on wildlife especially caribou — posed a central concern to Kivalliq residents during the board’s final public hearings, held in Rankin Inlet in August 2014.
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