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Canada Mining – North of 60

Baffinland ‘must significantly change its approach,’ Qamaniq says – by Derek Neary (Nunavut News – November 7, 2019)

https://nunavutnews.com/

With public hearings for Baffinland Iron Mines’ proposed expansion of its Mary River mine taking place in Iqaluit, Tununiq MLA David Qaminiq told his colleagues in the legislative assembly that the mining company has more work to do to gain the trust of Inuit.

He suggested on Wednesday that the company should have been more forthcoming about its full plans from its early days.

“Rather than providing a complete picture of the full scope of the project and its ultimate impact on the region, the incremental or ‘phased’ approach to requesting change after change after change has only served to cause confusion and frustration,” said Qaminiq.

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Baffinland blasted for its approach to community consultations – by Elaine Anselmi (Nunatsiaq News – November 6, 2019)

https://nunatsiaq.com/

Pond Inlet resident Tim Anaviapik Soucie says the problems with Baffinland’s approach to community consultation for its plans to expand its Mary River mine were evident from the moment chairs were set up in the room.

“Lining people up in chairs to talk to us tells us who is important and who is in charge,” Soucie told the Nunavut Impact Review Board during its hearing in Iqaluit on Tuesday, Nov. 5. “Circles do away with this.”

Soucie described Baffinland’s team arriving in town with a PowerPoint presentation that celebrated their achievements and work so far, and then asked if there were any questions. “This is not consultation,” he said.

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Baffinland’s Inuit landlord won’t support Mary River expansion – by Jim Bell (Nunatsiaq News – November 4, 2019)

https://nunatsiaq.com/

The Qikiqtani Inuit Association, which controls most of the land occupied by the Mary River iron mine, refuses to endorse or support the mine owner’s railway-based expansion proposal, says the organization’s president, P.J. Akeeagok.

Following a special board meeting held on Oct. 30, the QIA dropped this bombshell declaration into the hands of the Nunavut Impact Review Board in the form of a letter on Nov. 1, just before the start of the review board’s final public hearing in Iqaluit on Baffinland’s phase two expansion proposal on Nov. 2.

At their special meeting, QIA board members voted unanimously to take that position, Akeeagok’s letter said. “Many of QIA’s environmental and cultural concerns regarding Baffinland’s Phase 2 proposal have not been adequately resolved. We are also concerned that there are issues raised by impacted communities that have not yet been addressed,” QIA said.

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Nunavut board rejects Oceans North motion to suspend iron mine assessment – by Emma Tranter (Nunatsiaq News – November 3, 2019)

https://nunatsiaq.com/

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.

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‘It’s time Canadian companies stand up’: Agnico-Eagle CEO vows to make the case for energy and mining – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – October 25, 2019)

https://business.financialpost.com/

Boyd said he plans to be particularly vocal about the need for federal government investment in Canada’s Arctic

Two days after a federal election left Canada fractured along regional lines, and divided on many issues including whether to build energy pipelines, Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. chief executive Sean Boyd said he plans to begin advocating more forcefully for resource development.

The comments came in an interview with the Financial Post on Thursday, when Agnico reported record quarterly gold production of 477,000 ounces, and which has helped propel the company’s stock up by 40 per cent surge this year.

As the company grows into its role as one of Canada’s largest mining companies, Boyd said he plans to be particularly vocal about the need for federal government investment in Canada’s Arctic. His company has spent the past decade building two mines in Nunavut, which still largely lacks roads, energy grids, higher education resources and other infrastructure, and said it plans to use the experience to propound the benefits of mining.

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Paved with promises (Part Two): The North’s infrastructure deficit impacts sovereignty, the economy and quality of life – by Greg Klein (Resource Clips – October 7, 2019)

http://resourceclips.com/

Canada would gain a deep-water arctic port, Nunavut would get its first road out of the territory and mineral-rich regions would open up if two mega-proposals come to fruition.

Recent funding announcements to study the Northwest Territories’ Slave Geological Province Corridor and Nunavut’s Grays Bay Road and Port projects could lead to a unified all-season route from a highway running northeast out of Yellowknife to stretch north through the Lac de Gras diamond fields, past the Slave and Izok base and precious metals regions, and on to Arctic Ocean shipping.

In mid-August, as federal and NWT elections neared, representatives from both levels of government announced a $40-million study into a possible 413-kilometre all-season route linking the NWT’s Highway #4 with a proposed Nunavut road. The project would also extend the NWT electrical grid to the Slave region, which straddles both sides of the NWT-Nunavut border.

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Paved with promises (Part One): The North’s infrastructure needs get some attention from campaigning politicians – by Greg Klein (Resource Clips – October 7, 2019)

http://resourceclips.com/

Could this be the time when decision-makers finally get serious about Northern infrastructure? With one territorial election just concluded and a deficit-budget-friendly incumbent federal party campaigning for re-election, Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut might have reason to expect definitive action demonstrated by men, women and machinery at work. But while some projects show real progress, much of Canada’s Northern potential remains bogged down in talk and studies.

That’s despite some $700 million allocated to the North in Ottawa’s pre-election budget and months of Liberal spending promises since then. Not all that money was intended for infrastructure, however, and even some of the projects labelled that way turn out to be social or cultural programs.

Not necessarily new money either, much of it comes out of Ottawa’s $2-billion National Trade Corridors Fund, now two years into an 11-year program that promised up to $400 million for transportation infrastructure in the three territories by 2028.

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Nunavut’s newest MLA talks about mining and infrastructure – by Elaine Anselmi (Nunatsiaq News – October 17, 2019)

https://nunatsiaq.com/

As Nunavut’s legislature starts its fall sitting, David Qamaniq delivers his first members statement

The opening of the Nunavut legislative assembly’s fall sitting saw the newly minted Tununiq MLA, David Qajaakuttuk Qamaniq, give his first member’s statement.

“I would not be here today without the hard work and success of many people,” he opened, thanking his family and friends, as well as the opponent he faced in last month’s byelection, Charlie Inuarak.

“I fully recognize that I have joined this house at the midway point in its term. It feels like joining the National Hockey League midway through the season,” Qamaniq said, prompting laughs all around.

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Western Nunavut gold miner pleads guilty to Fisheries Act violation – by Jane George (Nunatsiaq News – October 8, 2019)

https://nunatsiaq.com/

CAMBRIDGE BAY—TMAC Resources Inc., which operates the Hope Bay gold mine about 125 kilometres southwest of Cambridge Bay, must pay a $50,000 fine for the unauthorized discharge of effluent into a nearby creek.

TMAC, which pleaded guilty to violating a regulation under the Fisheries Act, was ordered to pay the fine on Oct. 2 at a hearing in the Nunavut Court of Justice in Iqaluit.

The money will go into the federal Environmental Damages Fund, which ensures court-awarded penalties support projects with positive environmental impacts. “It’s not good,” said Alex Buchan, TMAC’s vice-president of corporate social responsibility, of the conviction.

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Northern zinc-rich projects get boost – by Rose Ragsdale (North of 60 Mining News – October 1, 2019)

https://www.miningnewsnorth.com/

As the worldwide deficit in zinc production grows, several zinc-lead mining projects across northern Canada await construction of access arteries needed to deliver their ore to market. The projects are among the world’s most attractive and represent a base metals treasure trove coveted by would-be developers and end users alike.

Recent funding from the Canadian government and other public and private sources could unlock the floodgates to critical infrastructure development needed to spur base metals mining in Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

In mid-August, the Government of Canada, two territorial governments and the Kitikmeot Inuit Association agreed to commit more than C$60 million to the Slave Corridor Project, an initiative aimed at kickstarting development in the mineral-rich and underdeveloped Slave Geological Province, with construction of new roads and a deep-water port.

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Rankin Inlet mine ramps up production, putting strain on local housing – by Emma Tranter (Nunatsiaq News – September 26, 2019)

https://nunatsiaq.com/

Meliadine gold mine set to enter phase two of production in 2023

MELIADINE MINE—A 25-kilometre road winds through the brilliant yellow tundra surrounding Rankin Inlet leading to Agnico Eagle’s newest gold mine. From a distance, the site looks like a small town, with new buildings stacked beside rows of living quarters.

The long-awaited mine, which cost more than $900 million to build, officially began commercial operations in May 2019. Agnico bought the property in 2010, but the area has been explored for its mineral potential since the 1980s, said Martin Plante, Meliadine’s general manager.

Although there were some “bumps along the way” to production, things are now going smoothly, Plante said. “Right now we are in production mode. We started to hire our permanent employees in 2017 at the mine and as the new department is getting in line, we’re starting to hire people in the other sectors too,” he said.

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‘Momentous day’ as Yukon’s newest mine pours 1st gold bar (CBC News North – September 18, 2019)

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

Yukon’s newest mine marked a milestone on Tuesday, as it poured its first gold bar — 1,001 ounces in size, and worth about $2 million. “A momentous day,” said Mark Ayranto, chief operating officer of Victoria Gold, which owns the Eagle mine near Mayo, Yukon.

Ayranto was in Whitehorse on Tuesday, in a roomful of people watching a live video feed from the mine site. On screen were two people decked head-to-toe in protective silver suits, ready to tip the molten gold into the mould.

Unrecognizable in one of those suits was Yukon Premier Sandy Silver. The $500-million mine will be the largest in Yukon’s history. It’s expected to be a major contributor to the territory’s economy.

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New geological survey maps understudied part of N.W.T. – by Laura Busch (CBC News North – September 18, 2019)

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

Mining advocates are applauding the N.W.T. Geological Survey for its recent work mapping an under-explored area of the territory. Tom Hoefer, the executive director of the NWT & Nunavut Chamber of Mines, says the information could spur mineral exploration and help the N.W.T.’s slumping mining industry.

“The [economic] outlook in the future isn’t that great, and the reason why is we haven’t found enough new mines to offset the mine closures that are going to be coming,” he said. “And the reason for that is we’ve had flagging, or really low exploration investment for the last 12 years now.”

The N.W.T. Geological Survey released new data on Monday of a large swath of the Slave Geological Province, including an area known as the Point Lake greenstone belt. Point Lake is located about 300 kilometres north of Yellowknife, near the Nunavut border.

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Yukon Zinc, owner of Wolverine mine, put into receivership – by Jackie Hong (Yukon News – September 16, 2019)

https://www.yukon-news.com/

Yukon Zinc Corporation, the company that owns the troubled Wolverine mine, has been put into receivership. Yukon Supreme Court Justice Suzanne Duncan approved an order putting PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. in charge of the company’s affairs Sept. 13 following a short hearing in Whitehorse.

Under the order, PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. will be allowed to, among other things, “take possession of and exercise control” over the Wolverine mine, carry out care and maintenance activities, manage legal proceedings and debts, and sell, transfer or lease assets as required.

The order is the result of a petition the Yukon government filed back in July, in which it requested Yukon Zinc be put into receivership due to “increasing uncertainty about Yukon Zinc’s ability to manage the site.”

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In Planet’s Fastest-Warming Region, Jobs Come With Thaw – by Danielle Bochove (Bloomberg News – September 17, 2019)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

The Canadian Arctic is melting, and two new gold mines are booming.

James Kalluk spent much of his childhood inside an igloo in Canada’s far north, close to the Arctic Circle. Building that kind of home requires temperatures low enough to freeze the region’s countless lakes, a particular consistency of snow and a long-bladed knife the Inuit call a pana.

“Today, there’s not much snow and it’s harder to make an igloo,” said Kalluk, now in his early 70s. “You may find a spot here or there that’s good, but the snow is very difficult now. It’s different.”

The loss of snow and ice are causing Canada to heat up much faster than the rest of the world—more than twice the global rate of warming, according to a national scientific assessment published in April. The farther north you go, the more accelerated the warming.

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