Bathurst road and port on shaky ground, watchdog says

An Arctic environmental watchdog group says the Bathurst Inlet Road and Port Project may have no reason to proceed now that the huge Izok Lake lead and zinc property has been dropped from its backers’ immediate plans.

Karen Wristen, the executive director of the Canadian Arctic Resources Committee, this week raised doubts about whether the project, which overlaps the Bathurst caribou herd’s calving grounds, now makes financial sense.

“Why is the government continuing to throw money at this project?” Wristen said in a news release issued this week.

The Bathurst Road and Port Project’s original plan would have seen a 290-km all-weather road network — in two sections — connecting a sea-port at Bathurst Inlet with the huge Izok Lake mineral deposit.

The first, and longest, section would see a 210-km all-weather road stretching from the port to the eastern shore of Contwoyto Lake.

The second, 80-km, section would start on the opposite side of Contwoyto Lake, and connect the Lupin Mine with the as-yet undeveloped Izok Lake property.

The two sections would be connected by barges running across Contwoyto Lake in the summer, and ice roads running across the lake in the winter.

The project represents the realization of a long-sought-after dream that would see the Kitikmeot region lifted out of poverty and dependency through the opening up of its rich mineral deposits.

The road-port system would be built through a 50-50 joint venture between the Kitikmeot Corporation and Nuna Logistics, a majority-Inuit-owned company that’s renowned for its expertise in ice-road construction and transportation.

But project proponents have altered the description that was provided to agencies including the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, the Kitikmeot Inuit Association and the Nunavut Water Board.

They’ve changed it to include only the first phase — the 210-km stretch that runs from the port at Bathurst Inlet to the shore of the lake.

That would eliminate the Izok Lake project, owned by the Vancouver-based Inmet Mining Corporation. In 1992, Izok Lake’s previous owner, the Metall Mining Corporation, lobbied vigorously for a Kitikmeot road and port, and then cancelled the project after governments refused to pay for a transportation system.

Since then, the huge but undeveloped lead-zinc deposit sitting under and around Izok Lake has been considered to be the project’s anchor tenant — its reason for being.

But Tony Keen, project manager for the scheme, said Inmet has informed his group that world zinc prices are too low for Izok Lake to be developed right now.

Because of that, Keen said, the second phase of the Bathurst road-port system will be postponed until some time in the future — when base metal prices are high enough to make it worthwhile for Inmet to develop its property.

But Wristen said the loss of Izok Lake, the project’s “centrepiece,” means the scheme may not be viable anymore, and that any environmental review should be postponed until the plan is clarified and its financial viability proven.

Tony Keen said, however, that a Bathurst road-port system’s main purpose was not to build a transportation route to Izok Lake, but to create a badly needed piece of infrastructure that would stimulate economic development throughout the entire Kitikmeot region.

He pointed out that the port at Bathurst Inlet wouldn’t just be a conduit to supply fuel and other supplies to mining projects in the interior. It would also be used as a base from which to supply lower-cost fuel products by barge throughout the Kitikmeot region.

He denied CARC’s allegation that project proponents have “quietly dropped” the Izok Lake project to avoid public notice.

“We didn’t do it quietly. We notified everybody that needed to be notified,” Keen said.

DIAND has already committed $3 million to help pay for the project’s planning costs, while the Nunavut government and various private companies have kicked in another $3 million.

The most recent cost estimate for building the system was about $215 million. But Keen says dropping the Lupin-to-Izok road will likely lower that figure by at least $50 million.

He cautioned, though, that final cost figures for the revised plan haven’t been finished yet.

Meanwhile, all the affected parties are waiting for Indian Affairs Minister Bob Nault to decide what kind of environmental review the project should get: a relatively limited one conducted by the Nunavut Impact Review Board, or a full-blown review by a federal environmental assessment panel.

CARC favours the latter, while the project’s proponents favour the former.