QIA opposes Steensby Inlet port for Mary River

The Qikiqtani Inuit Association is opposed to construction of a deep sea port at Steensby Inlet to ship iron ore to Europe from the proposed Mary River iron mine, the organization said Aug. 12 in a news release.

“Steensby Inlet, where Baffinland wants to build its port is considered too precious by Inuit for development to happen there. An alternative location for a port site is in the best interest of Inuit and the company,” QIA President Okalik Eegeesiak said in the release.

The Mary River mine’s proponent, the Baffinland Iron Mines Corp., has said recently that the Steensby Inlet port site may be the only commercially viable option open to the company.

Steensby Inlet, which lies to the southwest of Mary River and opens onto Foxe Basin, would be linked to the mine by a 150-km railway.

A fleet of 10 huge 300-metre-long ice-class ore ships would haul ore out of the port for 12 months of the year.

At a public meeting in Iqaluit this past April 21, Greg Missal, Baffinland’s vice-president of corporate affairs, said an internal feasibility study showed the only other option, a port at Milne Inlet, wouldn’t work for the company.

“In order for Mary River to operate efficiently we need to move a high volume of material efficiently and that’s how we’re going to do it,” Missal said.

But at a four-day workshop held in Iqaluit last week for representatives from affected communities, “members of the communities recognize that there will be substantial impacts from the project on the land, water, and on Inuit culture,” QIA said.

The mayors of Hall Beach, Igloolik and Pond Inlet have already sent a letter to the Nunavut Impact Review Board saying they disapprove of the Steensby Inlet port site.

The QIA says, however, that workshop participants generally support the Mary River project, although at the same time they share serious concerns about its potential impact on culture and the environment.

An iron mine at Mary River could revolutionize the economy of the Baffin region, creating many hundreds of new jobs and business opportunities.

The draft environmental impact statement for the Mary River project, which Baffinland issued this past April, suggests the project, as it is now proposed, could inflict serious damage on marine wildlife.

Baffinland Iron Mines is now held as a private company by ArcelorMittal, the European steel-making giant, who owns 70 per cent, and by Iron Ore Holdings LP, a private investment firm.