Regulator’s decision means less work at Mary River in 2012

Exploration and environmental studies will continue this summer at the Mary River camp near the site of the huge iron mine that Baffinland Iron Mines Corp. want to develop on Nunavut’s northern Baffin Island.

And other activities will continue at a smaller camp near Steensby Inlet where Baffinland, a private company under the control of ArcelorMittal, the European steel-making giant, and a private investment firm, Iron Ore Holdings LP, wants to build a port.

From there, Baffinland wants to export millions of tonnes of ore year-round to markets in Europe and Asia for at least 37 years — and some predict up to 100 years.

But Baffinland now plans to scale back the staging work it hoped to accomplish this summer, said Greg Missal, Baffinland’s vice-president of corporate affairs, in a March 22 interview.

That’s due to a decision by the Nunavut Impact Review Board earlier in March, when Baffinland learned it wouldn’t be able to keep 10 million litres of fuel on a barge in Steensby Inlet throughout next winter.

The NIRB decided that there was a “risk of a large accidental fuel spill which could cause irrevocable harm to the local Arctic marine environment.”

The NIRB’s decision on the fuel-storage proposal that prompted Baffinland’s decision to scale back, Missal said.

The fuel was needed to run equipment needed for the work plan.

That’s the second time Baffinland has decided to back away from pre-construction work planned for 2012

Last December, the company backed away from a plan would have used dozens of sealift sailings this coming summer to pre-position construction materials, fuel, vehicles, explosives, accommodation for hundreds of workers, and other equipment to prepare for the eventual construction of a mine, once the project is approved by regulators and governments by the end of 2012.

The recent NIRB decision changed Baffinland’s strategy again for 2012.

But the decision isn’t a deal breaker.

“It doesn’t take our eye of the ball,” Missal said.

The company will just go back to the drawing board to see how it can do things “as efficiently as possible.”

Asked if the latest move will delay the mine project, Missal said “it’s difficult for us to say definitely that it will have an effect.”

But one thing is certain: the scale-back is “lost opportunity” for some workers in the region.

“There no question that we would have had the need to hire workers, and we would have had to a maximize local employment. We see it as a lost opportunity for north Baffin,” Missal said.