Baffinland gives green light to rail line to boost mine’s output, lifespan
Acting CEO calls decision ‘defining moment’ for Mary River Project; railway would run 149 kilometres
Baffinland Iron Mines Corp. says it has been cleared to move ahead with the Steensby railroad project. (Photo courtesy of Baffinland Iron Mines Corp. )
Baffinland Iron Mines Corp. says it is moving forward to construct a railroad that will help increase the Mary River Mine’s production and potential lifespan.
The Steensby rail line extending 149 kilometres south from Mary River to Steensby Port would allow the Mary River Mine to increase its iron ore production and estimated lifespan. (Screenshot courtesy of Google Maps)
“This is a defining moment for the Mary River Project,” said Jowdat Waheed, acting chief executive officer for Baffinland, in a news release Thursday announcing the railway plan received all key regulatory authorizations and can proceed.
The company’s Steensby Inlet component — an all-year rail line that would run 149 kilometres south from Mary River to the proposed Steensby Port — would allow Baffinland to increase iron ore production to 22 million tonnes per year from the current 4.2 million tonnes.
It would also help extend the mine’s life until 2050 “and beyond,” said Peter Akman, head of communications for Baffinland, in an email.
“This reflects access to significantly larger proven and probable reserves that cannot be efficiently developed without rail access,” he said.
Baffinland currently employs 1,200 workers across Nunavut including mine site, port operations, marine, logistics and support staff, Akman said.
Until Thursday’s Steensby announcement, the Mary River Mine on northern Baffin Island was set to cease operations by 2035.
Akman didn’t specify the estimated price tag to build the railroad, saying it will be released in the “near future.”
“This project moving forward allows a multi-generational mine to flourish and continue in Nunavut,” said Hudson Lester, the Nunavut general manager for N.W.T. & Nunavut Chamber of Mines, in a phone interview Thursday.
“I think we could say this is a milestone that reflects all the years of collaborative efforts within Inuit organizations, Government of Nunavut, government of Canada and all the regulatory bodies,” he said.
The Steensby rail line was part of Baffinland’s original proposal for Mary River and was approved by the federal government in 2012.
“So much has changed since then,” Nunavut MP Lori Idlout said in phone interview Thursday.
She said she believes the project should go through another environmental assessment so that approval of the railroad can be an “informed decision.”
That assessment is not required by federal regulators, however.
Shortly after the initial approval, Baffinland turned away from its plans for the Arctic railway which at the time was estimated to cost $5.7-billion.
Instead, the company applied to increase its shipments to 12 million tonnes of iron ore annually through Milne Inlet and Eclipse Sound. The federal government rejected that proposal in 2022 after a heated, years-long public hearing.
Baffinland returned to its original plan of building a railway, which was deemed instrumental to the mine’s survival, according to a 2021 report commissioned by the mine titled Mary River Project Economics Explained.
Construction of the railway is expected to begin later this year with substantial completion in approximately three years, the company’s news release said.
It said major construction contracts are expected to be awarded primarily to Canadian companies, “including many Inuit-owned companies,” and create employment and procurement opportunities across Nunavut and the rest of the country.
Idlout said she believes the mine should further address existing environmental concerns such as iron ore dust and the mine’s impact on caribou migration routes before expanding further.
“I still hear from Nunavummiut about their concerns regarding their current operations and how the current operations are having an impact, both to the marine environment and to the surrounding area of Mary River,” she said.
Why in blazes would Idlout say there should be yet another review? Iron ore is plentiful around the world so ever more delays could put the mine out of business. It’s too bad after all these years–almost two generations now–that there are no Inuit trained as mining engineers or marine biologists capable of participating in making those informed decisions.
I think Idlout forgot that the Baffin caribou have already rebounded in number even with the existing mine truck traffic. Plus, she may have not considered that for a railway, the number of train trips would actually be lower than if you had to move stuff by truck.
You stared that iron ore is common, but you did not consider the purity. The reason Mary river is so profitable is due to its purity, enabling it to be fed directly into blast furnaces. Mary river has been sufficiently studied.
For why no inuit white collar workers at the mine you only have to look at the lagging lackadasical education system also this NS FARCE doesn’t have Engineering or Management courses that may prepare Inuit for higher paying jobs..25% graduation rate directors unqualified that run departments at gn are all relative oh the school attendance rate is up there with gn …go figure
Whats the rush for ?
Jobs.
So when BIM said it needed the increased quota to make the railway feasible, that really was just posturing.
This might come as a shock but, yes, companies need to make money to pay for their costs and expenses. One of those expenses being royalties directly to Inuit. They literally published a report on exactly this lol
Lori…you mean that iron ore dust that has been there since time immemorial that the wildlife have also been around since time immemorial and is absolutely benign because it’s naturally occurring and has been blowing off that mountain since time immemorial, Lori?? That dust??
Sigh, it take a certain level of dumb to think that the natural dust coming off the mountain vs blasting the ore that then gets transported down the mountain, crushed and finally loaded onto b-trains, is even remotely close to the same.
What’s even more concerning is that people agree with your clearly wrong, clearly never stepped foot in that environment, assessment.
Lol! It’s the same dust dummy. Hence, purity. It just doesn’t look nice, ’cause yanno, it’s a mine site lol. It’s NIMBY-ism at its finest…except the site is 160kms away from the nearest community and has a footprint contained within 6 sq. ha.
I wish baffinland would stop mining altogether. Too many environmental impacts that will eventually affect Inuit more then it is
A concern about something doesn’t automatically make it an impact.
MP Idlout. Last week you were talking about the “gaping hole” in easing the burden of food prices for your constituents.
This announcement will create 600 jobs for construction, and over 1,000 full time jobs thereafter.
That is the potential for 600, then 1,000 Nunavummuit to be earning a decent or even high wage instead of SA so that they can afford to feed their own families.
Even if it were only 200 Nunavut jobs during construction, and then 300 permanent Nunavut jobs thereafter, that would be about the same amount of wages earned compared to what Canada spends on Nutrition North in Nunavut.
Connect the dots already.
Choo, choo, whee!