The Nunavut Impact Review Board has dismissed a motion from Oceans North to suspend the review board’s assessment of Baffinland Iron Mines Corp.’s railway-based phase two expansion plan for the Mary River iron mine.
In front of a packed audience in Iqaluit’s Cadet Hall, the board presented its ruling on the motion from Oceans North, and two other motions, during the late afternoon of Sunday, Nov. 3. A public hearing on the phase two expansion is currently being held in Iqaluit from Nov. 2 to 6.
The notice of motion filed by Oceans North on Oct. 29 asked the board to suspend its proceedings until the NIRB had the chance to review a document called a preliminary offering circular.
“The board finds that the preliminary offering circular is a confidential document that was not widely or publicly available and should not be posted on the board’s public registry,” Marjorie Kaviq Kaluraq, the board’s chair, said on Nov. 3.
“The board has concluded Baffinland’s communications about financing and forward-looking statements about eventual expansion plans is not relevant,” Kaluraq added. In that document, which is a pitch to potential investors, Baffinland appears to tell investors that the company may use its proposed 110-kilometre railway to ship up to 18 million tonnes of iron ore each year through its port at Milne Inlet by 2021.
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