Kitikmeot road and port scheme moves along

DENISE RIDEOUT

CAMBRIDGE BAY — There’s a lot riding on the Kitikmeot’s road-and-port project.

If built, the Bathurst Inlet road and port would provide greater access to mineral-rich areas in the Kitikmeot and spark the development of promising mining projects.

“We needed to figure out how to get mining going in the region, and the answer is the road and port,” Charlie Lyall, president of the Kitikmeot Corporation, said at the Nunavut Mining Symposium in Cambridge Bay earlier this month. The Kitikmeot Corporation, a branch of the Kitikmeot Inuit Association, is spearheading the project.

Exploration and mining companies are keeping their fingers crossed about the project coming to fruition.

That’s because the road and port, proposed for Bathurst Inlet, could provide a transportation link between the Arctic Coast and the Kitikmeot region. Right now, the only road access to the area is by travelling the winter road from Yellowknife to the Lupin mine.

The project organizers envision building an 295-kilometre all-weather road from Bathurst Inlet to the winter road on Contwoyto Lake and continuing on to the Izok Lake deposit, southeast of Kugluktuk.

A deep-water port, located at Bathurst Inlet, is the second component. The port will be complete with a wharf, a dock for barges and a storage facility.

Together, the road and port will give mining companies cheaper and easier access to the mineral-rich land.

The Lupin, Diavik, Ekati, Jericho and Hope Bay mines are all potential users of the proposed all-weather road and deep-water port.

Inmet Mining Corp., owner of the Izok Lake property 250 kilometres southeast of Kugluktuk, is banking on the Bathurst Inlet road and port. The infrastructure would give the mining company a sure route to Izok Lake.

The property boasts of having zinc, copper, lead and silver deposits worth $2 billion. But, according to Inmet Mining’s reports, the company simply can’t afford to pay for the infrastructure that’s needed to ship its product to the markets.

In the report, Inmet says: “Should this infrastructure become available, as recommended by the Bathurst Inlet Road and Port Study, the economy of Izok will change, allowing it to become a producer of zinc, copper and lead.”

During the mining symposium, people working on the Bathurst Inlet road-and-port project tried to assure mining companies things are moving ahead.

Tony Keen, manager of the project, said staff are busy researching and writing the reports that needed before the road and port can get underway.

This month they submitted a preliminary project description to the Kitikmeot Inuit Association and the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs for assessment.

Next on the list is an environmental impact statement, which Keen said will likely be ready by December 2002.

Keen said construction on the $215-million road and port is slated to begin in mid-2004 and that it could be operating by mid-2006.

The groups behind the Bathurst Inlet project— Kitikmeot Corporation, territorial and federal government departments, and Inmet Mining — have put $6 million into studying the possibility of building a road and port.

They’re convinced, Keen said, that the new transportation routes will cut costs for mining companies.

For the Kitikmeot, the road and port will bring jobs. The construction work, which is expected to take two years, could employ up to 300 people from the region.

Despite the promising outlook, the project hasn’t moved forward without attracting criticism.

Some wildlife groups have said construction of a road and a port could negatively affect the caribou that calve and migrate in the area.

But Keen said protecting wildlife and the environment are a top priority.

“This project isn’t in the calving grounds of the caribou,” he said. “It is in the migration route of the caribou, but the road will actually be closed during the major migration period for the calves. So there will be no interference at those points.”