http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/
50 guest expected on site today to celebrate the ramp up of the Doris North mine at Hope Bay
After decades of exploration, numerous owners and the complex logistics of getting a gold mine up and running in the Arctic, Nunavut’s Hope Bay mine is finally celebrating its ramp up toward full commercial production.
And they’re throwing a party. Fifty people, including Inuit landowners and mining executives, plan to fly to the remote site for a ceremony and tour. “It’s about being thankful for what we have been able to do there… [and to] recognize the people who have come before us, especially the Inuit,” said Catharine Farrow, TMAC Resources CEO.
t’s been more than a decade since there’s been an operating mine in the mineral rich Kitikmeot region. Hope Bay is about 125 kilometres southwest of Cambridge Bay, encompassing about 1,100 square kilometres.
Newmont Mining acquired the Hope Bay property in 2007, building an air strip, camps and ports. The project employed roughly 150 Inuit from the Kitikmeot region, but in 2011 the company shut the mine down and put it into care and maintenance mode.
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“It was a blow for Inuit,” recalls former KIA President, Charlie Evalik, from his home in Cambridge Bay. In 2013 TMAC Resources acquired the property. Evalik helped negotiate the Inuit Impact benefit agreements for the Hope Bay project.
He’s hopeful Inuit employment numbers will rise again once the mine is in full production.
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