Feds give nod to expansion plan for western Nunavut gold mine

This map shows the location of TMAC Resources Inc.’s mining activities near Cambridge Bay. (FILE PHOTO)

CAMBRIDGE BAY—The planned expansion for TMAC Resources Inc.’s gold mine near Cambridge Bay has cleared one of its final hurdles.

On Friday, Caroline Bennett, minister of Crown-Indigenous relations, and Dominic LeBlanc, minister of intergovernmental and northern affairs and internal trade, issued a letter saying they accepted the Nunavut Impact Review Board’s recommendation to issue a project certificate for the company’s proposed Madrid-Boston project.

Last June, the review board spelled out 39 recommendations for the project.

In their letter, dated Oct. 10, the ministers accepted all the terms and conditions recommended by the review board.

But they agreed with a call from the Kitikmeot Inuit Association to tweak one recommendation on Inuit employment, so TMAC will now be obliged, through various committees, to report and examine “barriers and opportunities to achieving the high levels of Inuit employment.”

“Higher numbers of Inuit with meaningful employment on major infrastructure and resource development projects in Nunavut is an aspirational goal,” the ministers said in their letter to the review board.

The ministers also asked for a longer period to assess a planned transmission line and its impact on wildlife.

TMAC said in a release today that it’s now looking forward to the Nunavut Water Board’s final hearing later this month in Cambridge Bay, which will focus on the water use, infrastructure and tailings deposition requirements.

TMAC said it expects that the review board will issue a new project certificate before the end of the year and that the water board will issue the needed licences in the spring of 2019.

“We believe that we are in the very early years of a multi-generational operation at Hope Bay and appreciate the support we have received in establishing a strong foundation,” Jason Neal, TMAC’s president and CEO, said in the release.

Last June, Nunavut regulators recommended that the federal government approve the company’s plans to expand its operations at its Hope Bay property, about 150 kilometres southwest of Cambridge Bay.

TMAC has operated the Doris North gold mine at Hope Bay since early 2017, after acquiring the 1,600-square-km property earlier from Newmont Mining Corp.

TMAC hopes to have mining operations underway at its Madrid North and Madrid South deposits by 2020, and at its Boston deposit by 2022.

The company said it plans to hire 70 people during the first year of construction, and up to 300 by the third year of construction. During operations, the company would employ about 800 people.

TMAC has signed an impact and benefit agreement with the KIA, as the project sits mostly on Inuit-owned land controlled by the KIA and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. The project is expected to generate about $400 million in royalties, mineral taxes and other payments.

TMAC will be presenting at the KIA annual general meeting that gets underway tomorrow in Cambridge Bay.

After the meeting, TMAC plans to take the KIA board on a site visit, as well.

Ministers Response to Decision-ICHE by NunatsiaqNews on Scribd