Western Nunavut gold miner deals with fallout from COVID-19 pandemic – by Jane George (Nunatsiaq News – May 6, 2020)

https://nunatsiaq.com/

For more than a month, under new COVID-19 restrictions, TMAC Resources Inc. has managed to operate its Hope Bay gold mine complex with reduced staff and operations.

Now the junior mining company has obtained some temporary relief from meeting its 2020 Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. exploration requirements due to the challenges in fielding exploration crews this year.

“Under this agreement, we are required to explore on tenured Inuit owned lands a minimum amount per hectare per year. This is just not logistically possible at this moment,” Alex Buchan, TMAC’s vice-president for corporate social responsibility, told Nunatsiaq News.

The federal government is also expected to provide TMAC temporary relief from having to meet mineral claims and lease exploration work requirements on Crown land, mainly in the Elu Inlet area, east and north of Hope Bay, he said.

“We believe this relief will be announced shortly, and be extended to all Nunavut mineral explorers with Crown tenure,” Buchan said. Meanwhile, operations continue at Hope Bay, but these remain reduced and the TMAC office in Cambridge Bay remains closed to the public.

For the rest of this article: https://nunatsiaq.com/stories/article/western-nunavut-gold-miner-deals-with-fall-out-from-covid-19-pandemic/