Areva Resources shoots for 'production; in 2016

RANKIN INLET – There was only one question, and a congratulatory plaque for Areva Resources at the Kivalliq Inuit Association's annual general meeting Oct. 29.

Edwin Evo, Baker Lake's KIA representative, had one question for the company that wants to build a uranium mine 80 kms west of Baker Lake. When does production start?

Barry McCallum, Areva's director of Nunavut affairs, said the company hopes for 2016.

In an update, he told KIA members the company took 5,500 kilograms of bulk samples this year, and is in the middle of studies on the proposed project's socio-economic, environmental and health impacts.

"I think by the sounds of silence it was a very clear presentation," said Jose Kusugak, the KIA president, before handing McCallum a plaque for "community involvement."

Kusugak complimented the French-owned company, which also owns uranium mines in northern Saskatchewan, for consulting Kivalliq hamlets, schools and chambers of commerce.

"It's a really good example of how companies should do consultation work," he said.

The company is forging ahead with the project, which is still in the midst of a feasibility study, despite the fact that uranium prices have tanked thanks to the economic meltdown.

As of late last month, uranium prices sat at $45 per pound, well down from the $85 per pound the mineral fetched this time last year, and roughly a third of the $130 price in May, 2007.

McCallum said the company plans to release a formal project proposal Nov. 14. After that, the environmental approval process begins, and that could take years.

Still, Areva employed 26 Baker Lake residents for a total of 10,000 person-hours this year to help with construction, operation and wildlife monitoring. And McCallum said Areva expects to employ between 400 and 500 workers during the life of the mine, which could last until 2038.

The company's goal is to employ as many Kivalliq Inuit as possible, and as many as 68 to 85 per cent of heavy equipment operators and trades workers will be from the region, McCallum said.

Areva also did 22 Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit interviews in Baker Lake and Chesterfield Inlet last year, and occasionally flies people by helicopter to the sites of outpost camps where they were born.

"Some people get to see their homelands after 50 years of being away," McCallum said.

Agnico Eagle's general manager for western Canada, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, Martin Bergeron, also faced the board, and said its Meadowbank gold mine should be ready to start production sometime during the first three months of 2010.

The company has expanded its operations 110 kms north of Baker Lake dramatically over the last year, completing a road to the site from the hamlet and moving 40 per cent more cargo – 25,000 tonnes – via sealift in 2008.

Best of all, Bergeron said, the company didn't see any of its barges frozen into the ice of Baker Lake this year. Last year, Northern Transportation Co. Ltd. left six barges frozen in the lake, which was a source of environmental concern for some residents.

Meadowbank is essentially a town now, boasting a road, a planned airstrip, a massive dyke, a permanent camp with room for 366 people, and six 4.4-megawatt generators.

The company is hiring from all over the Kivalliq, and no one with a Grade 12 education has been refused, Bergeron said. Workers are fed, housed, and transported from their home community all at Agnico Eagle's expense.

Bergeron said the company has spent a total of $387 million developing Meadowbank, with $99 million worth of contracts going to northern or Inuit companies.

That figure caused Kusugak to light up. "The numbers were nice to see."

Agnico Eagle is also trying to mend relations that were strained earlier this year when the CBC reported the company banned workers from speaking Inuktitut while on the job site. None of the KIA board members brought it up at the meeting.

But Rankin Inlet representative Jack Kabvitok scolded Bergeron for bringing slides written in English only.

And Bergeron said Agnico Eagle has hired Rankin Inlet businesswoman Tara Tootoo-Fotheringham to develop a "cultural sensitivity program" that will begin Nov. 18