Baffinland wraps up enormous 2013 sealift for Nunavut iron mine

In what it describes as an “enormous mobilization effort,” the Baffinland Iron Mines Corp. has completed its 2013 sealift.

That work prepares the way for the start of construction at the company’s Milne Inlet port and at the Mary River mine site.

Using nine cargo vessels and three fuel-carrying vessels, Baffinland has shipped:

• 173,000 cubic metres, or 32,700 tonnes of cargo;

• 33 million litres of diesel;

• 2.1 million litres of Jet-A fuel.

Baffinland moved all that cargo with the help of two majority Inuit-owned companies: Nunavut Sealink and Supply Inc. and Nunavut Eastern Arctic Shipping Ltd.

In total, Baffinland spent about $60 million on shipping contracts.

“A successful sealift operation takes meticulous planning and execution in order to be safely and effectively completed. The Baffinland team, along with the knowledge and experience of our Inuit owned contractors, allowed our project to get underway on schedule,” Ron Hampton, Baffinland’s vice-president and project director, said in a news release.

Baffinland’s sealift program set off a shipping boom at the St. Lawrence Seaway port at Valleyfield, which is a major marshaling centre for Arctic-bound goods.

One vessel, the MV Claude Desgagnés, operated by Nunavut Sealink and Supply Inc., set an all-time record when it departed Valleyfield Sept. 10 loaded with 23,384 cubic metres of cargo bound for the Baffinland Iron Mines Corp. beach site at Milne Inlet.

Baffinland plans to do construction work through 2013 into the winter of 2014, with iron ore production set to start in 2015.