Nunavik’s second nickel mine to start in 2012

The $112.4 million being sunk into the Chinese-owned Nunavik Nickel Mine located between Salluit and Kangiqsujuaq includes this newly-built residence for 365 future workers. (COURTESY OF GOLDBROOK VENTURES)

By early 2012, Nunavik will see hundreds of new jobs as the region’s second nickel mine steamrolls into operation.

”Sixteen to 18 months from now is very quick in this business. It’s going to feel like tomorrow,” David Baker, president and chairman of Goldbrook Ventures, the minority partner in Nunavik Nickel, said in an interview from Vancouver.

This summer, the mine’s majority owner Jien Canada Mining Ltd. is sinking $112.4 million to develop the site, located about 90 kilometres west of Kangiqsujuaq and just south of Xstrata’s Raglan nickel mine.

Ongoing work by SNC-Lavalin includes the preparation of fuel storage tanks, accommodations for 365 workers, roadwork, pre-stripping of deposits to generate construction material, concrete foundations for the mill site and engineering studies.

By the end of September, the shell of the mine’s mill should be in place, so that work can continue through the winter, Baker said.

A $17.5-million exploration program, including extensive diamond drilling, will also take place this summer.

About 100 people are working in two camps near Kangiqsujuaq and the mine site this summer, Baker said.

It’s been two years since there was any activity at the nickel-rich property, formerly owned by Canadian Royalties Inc.

Its plans to develop the Nunavik Nickel mine fell apart in 2008, a casualty of their legal disputes with a former partner, the decline in metal prices, logistical problems and bad economic times.

Jien Canada Mining Ltd. acquired the Nunavik Nickel project from Canadian Royalties Inc. in November 2009, when Chinese interests were taking advantage of low metal prices by going bargain hunting for financially-troubled Western mining assets.

Jilin Jien now owns 75 per cent of the shares of the company, while 25 per cent of the shares are owned by Vancouver-based Goldbrook.

Baker said the Chinese are bringing “significant money” to the project.

“The mine which will probably end up costing $400 to $500 million,” he said. “It’s going to create a lot of jobs and do a lot for the communities.

Jien is still trying to work out a deal that would allow the mine to share permanent airport facilities with Raglan.

A decision not to allow construction of a second airstrip was a major stumbling block to Canadian Royalties’ development plans— and its inability to strike an agreement with Xstrata— meant the all its supplies and staff had to be ferried in on rugged Twin Otters.

The Qaqqalik Landholding Corporation, which manages Inuit-owned lands in and around Salluit, had delivered a blistering 13-page brief to the Kativik Environmental Quality Commission, which reviewed the project in 2008, condemning the construction of more roads and another airport— “the increased access to the territory is in our opinion mostly beneficial to miners…this increase in access to the territory presents an increased area of potential negative impacts from mining.”

The KECQ finally attached a recommendation to the project’s authorization permit that said a single airstrip should serve the Nunavik Nickel mine and Xstrata’s Raglan mine.

Documents viewed on-line by Nunatsiaq News seem to show that the company recently received the go-ahead to construct a 280-metre gravel airstrip near Mitiq Lake.

Baker was unwilling to answer questions about the airstrip issue.

“We’re in negotiations. There are lots of ways to solve it in the long and short of it,” he said. “We’ll get there.”

Forging a better relationship with Nunavik communities is high on his list— as well as seeing locals get the first crack at jobs.

“This is a great thing for the Inuit,” he said. “We want to create a lot of good will and jobs up there and it was very frustrating because it always seemed as if there was a black cloud, lawsuits and fighting about this and that, and not enough community relations. We’re going to try and overcome that.”

Clément Tremblay, a long-time former Quebec government official who is familiar with Nunavik, has been hired to promote relations with the region.

A community tour is also planned in the near future to spread good will and t-shirts, Baker said.