TMAC promotes gold mine project to western Nunavut

These buildings at the Doris North gold mine project, seen here in October 2012, may soon see more activity as TMAC moves ahead on the project Newmont put into care and maintenance in January 2012.

CAMBRIDGE BAY — Discharge systems, waste rock and ore storage, vent raises, and tailings. This kind of technical mining jargon appeared to be familiar to the mine-savvy residents of Cambridge Bay who attended an Oct. 1 update from TMAC Resources Inc.

That may be because they’ve sat through many previous consultations on the Hope Bay gold mine project, last put on hold by Newmont Mining Corp. in 2012.

To the surprise of those at the Oct. 1 consultation, TMAC didn’t offer door prizes, a local tradition: Alex Buchan, TMAC’s manager of community relations, said TMAC is sinking all its money into moving Hope Bay into production.

“We know Hope Bay has had false starts, but because of our business plan, it’s going well, and we’re hoping we will be able to pour gold some time next year,” Buchan said.

TMAC says the company has everything — except all the required regulatory permits — to get its Hope Bay-Doris North gold mine project, about 125 kilometres south of Cambridge Bay, into operation by the end of 2016.

By holding consultations in all five Kitikmeot communities, TMAC officials appear eager to rally support for the project amendments they’re seeking — and need — from the Nunavut Impact Review Board and Nunavut Water Board.

TMAC already has the deals with Inuit organizations, including a 20-year benefit and land tenure surface and sub-surface agreements as well as a soon-to-be-finalized production lease — which would be Nunavut’s “second ever” for a mine (the first going to Agnico Eagle for its Meadowbank gold mine).

TMAC also has the money to build the Doris North mine: $135 million from a public stock offering plus a $150-million loan, which the company says it will repay when the gold bars start rolling out of its mine.

TMAC’s plans include mining more gold over six years — three times as long as originally planned, Buchan said Oct. 1.

But first TMAC has to get permission from Nunavut regulators for these changes to its original project. Other changes include mining under Doris Lake, storing and detonating explosives, and the construction of tailings compounds, a bigger camp and a new road.

Plans also call for the laying of two-kilometre pipe into the waters of Roberts Bay. This pipe would see up to 3,000 cubic metres a day of salty water from the underground mine site released into the Arctic Ocean, 40 metres underwater.

If the receipt of permits sticks to schedule, the mill, now under construction in Australia, will be commissioned late in 2016.

By then, the price of gold — now US $1,113 per ounce — may rise again to US $1,250 per ounce, which, TMAC said in its pre-feasibility study, is the minimum required for the mine to make money.

Of the $148 million earmarked for the mine’s construction, a good portion will end up in western Nunavut, with Kitikmeot-based businesses receiving “guaranteed opportunities” for 14 types of work on the site.

And to fill 280 mine positions locally, there will be Inuit employment targets set and backed up by training programs, TMAC said.