Life after Nanisivik

DENISE RIDEOUT

ARCTIC BAY — Yellow dump trucks loaded with minerals dug from the rocks around Nanisivik drive down a gravel road toward the mill at the mine site.

The mill, a red building, is full of people, and the machines inside it are buzzing with activity.

This is the last summer mine workers will dig underground for mineral-rich rocks, drive truckloads of them to the mill to be processed and then load ore onto ships destined for southern Canada.

On Sept. 30, after 26 years of mining in the picturesque area facing Strathcona Sound on the northern tip of Baffin Island, Nanisivik Mine will shut down.

The low world zinc prices forced the mine’s owner, CanZinco Ltd., to pull the plug on its operations four years earlier than planned. The dwindling ore reserves there also played a role in the company’s decision to stop mining.

When the mine closes this fall, about 15 employees from Arctic Bay will be out of work. There are few other employment prospects in the small town of 700.

“There are Arctic Bay people employed at the mine who live in the town site. What is going to happen to them and their homes?” Joanasie Akumalik, Arctic Bay’s mayor, asked at a public hearing in the community July 24.

“There are about 15 local people working at the mine. On top of that we have at least 10 other jobs that are created as a result of the mine operations. Can you imagine what it means to Arctic Bay to lose 25 jobs that support people in this community?”

There’s little doubt among Arctic Bay and Nanisivik residents that the mine brought some good employment opportunities to the area.

“Since the mine was opened it has helped over the years to employ people in the community,” said longtime resident Tommy Tatapuapik. “They have trained heavy-equipment operators, and people learned job skills at the mine.”

But those jobs and training opportunities are in their last days.

After the mine’s closure, there will be even fewer jobs available for young people in Arctic Bay, residents said.

“What are the prospects of those students when they finish school?” asked Levi Barnabas. “They have no prospects. The only jobs there are working as a cashier in the stores or as stock boys,” he said.

“You dig things up every day”

Some of Nanisivik Mine’s Inuit workers, sitting around a table in the mine’s dome-shaped cafeteria, say they don’t have new jobs lined up for the fall.

Three young men shrug their shoulders when asked what they’ll do once their jobs end in two months’ time. Andy Ootova, who has worked in the mill for the past year, said he won’t terribly miss a job he describes as “you dig things up every day and you get dirty every day.”

“I’ll look for a job again,” Ootova said. “If not, I’ll go back to college.”

The three finish their meal and head back to work. Paulossie Oqallak, 37, sets down his plate of roast beef and mashed potatoes and reminisces about the opening of the mine. He was 11 years old at the time. “We had a lot of fun. We used to come over here [from Arctic Bay] to swim.”

After 11 years at Nanisivik, working his way up from a mechanic’s helper to a motor vehicle mechanic, Oqallak will be out of a job in October.

After that, Oqallak will likely move out of Arctic Bay and head to the South in search of a job.

Others in Arctic Bay are hopeful the mine’s closure will bring them work.

Once mining stops this fall, there will be two years of clean-up and reclamation work up for grabs.

Residents and political leaders are urging the mining company to look to Arctic Bay for the labourers it will need to carry out the extensive clean up of the mine and town sites, expected to take two years.

Rebekah Uqi Williams, MLA for Arctic Bay and Nanisivik, stands near the mine’s conveyor belt and dock and demands CanZinco tell the community if they will get any of the clean-up jobs.

“The community needs to have a clear picture of how many people will be employed and if the people of Arctic Bay will be employed,” Williams said.

But CanZinco officials couldn’t give her a concrete answer. That’s because the clean-up plan hasn’t been finalized. The mining company is waiting to hear what the Nunavut government wants to do with old mine equipment, vehicles and buildings, such as the church, school and health centre.

If the company and government come to an agreement not to demolish the buildings, the nature of the clean-up project will change.

“Until we know how much work we’ll have to do, we don’t know if contractors will do it or if we’ll do it ourselves,” said Bill Heath, general manager of the Nanisivik mine.

“It would be beneficial for all involved if many of the employees, or all the employees, come from Arctic Bay,” he told Williams.

Akumalik, admits many hope residents will get the clean-up jobs.

But as one mine closes in the area, another one is on the horizon. Kennecott-Twin Mining says there’s diamond potential in nearby Jackson Inlet.

“Well, we have that other mining going, the proposed diamond mine,” Akumalik said.

“That will keep us alive, I think.”