Team contains fire at Baffinland’s Milne Inlet port site in Nunavut

A view of the Milne Inlet camp from August 2014. (FILE PHOTO)

An emergency team has contained a fire that broke out inside a contractor’s temporary shop at the Milne Inlet port site, part of Baffinland Iron Mines’ Mary River iron project, the company said in a brief statement issued April 15.

The statement said mine rescue teams trained in emergency response have been sent to Milne Inlet.

At the same time, an onsite emergency response team has “contained” the fire, the company said.

The Milne Inlet port site is connected to the Mary River mine by a 100-kilometre tote road.

From Milne Inlet, vessels are expected to ship up to 4.2 million tonnes during the ice-free season.

The site received its first load of iron ore for stockpiling in September 2014.

Around the same time, the company started work on construction of a fixed dock, a large laydown and ore stockpile area, shop loading equipment and an extension to the Milne Inlet airstrip.

The first shipment out of Milne Inlet was expected to sail around the middle of 2015, after the ice season ends.

Baffinland, in its statement, did not name the contractor whose temporary shop caught fire.

(More to follow)