Pond Inlet calls for slow increase to iron ore output at Mary River Mine (CBC News North – January 13, 2021)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/

With final environmental hearings for a production expansion at Mary River Mine set to start in Pond Inlet, Nunavut, in two weeks, the community’s municipal council says it is prepared to support the project if the mine owners agree to gradual production increases.

Instead of seeing output at the mine immediately double from six million to 12 million tonnes of iron ore shipped out annually, the hamlet is asking Baffinland Iron Mines Corporation to only increase output by 1.5 million tonnes each year.

“The Hamlet of Pond Inlet will not support the phase two project unless Baffinland agrees to a proposal to phase in the shipment of 12 million tonnes or ore per year, in yearly increments of 1.5 million tonners per year,” Pond Inlet Mayor Joshua Arreak said in a recent letter to the Nunavut Impact Review Board.

The municipal council for the Qikiqtaaluk community closest to the north Baffin mine said this will help the community monitor changes to the land, water and wildlife.

“Making a large change that may affect an ecosystem, and then studying the results and attempting to manage these changes after the fact amounts to conventional, reactionary, and often crisis management,” the letter said. “It is entirely inconsistent with the concept of adaptive management.”

For the rest of this article: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/pond-inlet-calls-for-slow-increase-to-iron-ore-output-at-mary-river-mine-1.5870419