Reconsider mine pit expansion proposal ASAP: federal minister

Meadowbank’s Goose and Portage Pits are located in close proximity to the mine’s mill, office and lodging infrastructure, while Vault Pit and the proposed expansion into Phaser Lake are located 8 km northeast of the main mine site. (AEM IMAGE)

Could you get on that, ASAP?

That was the advice the federal Aboriginal affairs minister offered to the Nunavut Impact Review Board earlier this month, as the board reconsiders a project to expand an open pit mine at Meadowbank gold mine.

Last summer, the mine’s owners, Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd., proposed to expand its current Vault Pit operations southwest into nearby Phaser Lake. The result would be Phaser Pit, expected to produce more than 21,000 ounces of gold.

But before the mining company could start that work, it would need to drain the lake of an estimated 700,000 cubic metres of water and remove fish from the lake before it could start mining there in 2017.

A number of federal departments called for more thorough assessments of the proposed changes, and that led the NIRB to determine earlier this year that it would have to reassess Meadowbank’s project certificate — first issued in 2006 — before the expansion could go ahead.

In January, the NIRB sent a letter to Agnico Eagle requesting that the mining company prepare an addendum to Meadowbank’s final environmental impact statement describing all aspects of the proposed amendment — although the company has yet to indicate when or whether it plans to update that document.

At the same time, NIRB’s chairperson Elizabeth Copland wrote to Bernard Valcourt, the federal minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, asking for his department’s direction.

In a response to the letter, Valcourt wrote to Copland advising the NIRB to act as fast as possible in its reconsideration of the project.

“I recognize that this is a busy time for the board given the number of projects currently undergoing assessment,” Valcourt wrote in a May 7 letter to the NIRB.

“However, in light of the relatively small scale of the proposed changes to the project, I would encourage the board to conduct its reconsideration of the project certificate No. 004 in as expeditious a manner as possible.”

Reached in Cambridge Bay, NIRB’s executive director Ryan Barry said the board continues to wait on word about when Agnico Eagle plans to submit the addendum to its final environmental impact statement, before it can move forward.

“Once received, the board intends to demonstrate how it plans to conduct its assessment in ‘as expeditious a manner as possible’ when establishing the timelines for this reconsideration moving forward,” Barry said.