Company wants to build 185-kilometre road south from Kuujjuaq
Organizations representing Inuit in Nunavik and in the comunity of Kuujjuaq have signed a letter of intent with a junior mining company that wants to build a 185-kilometre haul road south from Kuujjuaq to an open pit rare earths mine.
Maggie Emudluk, Makivik Corp.’s vice-president for economic development, and Sammy Koneak, the president of the Nayumivik Landholding Corp., signed the letter of intent on May 15 with Vancouver-based Commerce Resources Corp. A Makivik Corp, spokesperson said the letter of intent creates a committee that will provide answers to concerns and questions from people in Kuujjuaq.
“The Ashram deposit project is still in a pre-development phase and has to go through several stages prior to getting formal Inuit acceptance to be implemented,” the Makivik spokesperson said.
The company wants to develop its Ashram deposit, located roughly 130 kilometres south of Kuujjuaq, into Canada’s first mine for rare earth elements, which are in growing demand for use in digital devices like cell phones tablets, flat screen TVs, and hybrid vehicles.
In a news release on the signing, Commerce Resources’ President Chris Groves called the agreement “a milestone that speaks to the cooperation between all parties” on moving ahead with the project, whose capital cost is estimated at around $765 million.
For the rest of this article: https://nunatsiaq.com/stories/article/nunavik-inuit-say-yes-to-proposed-rare-earths-mine/