Meliadine gold mine: The ‘largest hotel’ in Nunavut
Mine has more employees than the population of many Nunavut hamlets
Wenda Sinnisiak sits in the Inuit country food kitchen at Agnico Eagle’s Meliadine gold mine site on Oct. 2. (Photo by Arty Sarkisian)
Agnico Eagle’s Meliadine gold mine has approximately 1,500 employees. That’s about half the size of the population of nearby Rankin Inlet and slightly more than Clyde River.
But only about 700 people live and work on the site at all times, which is still more than the populations of Grise Fiord, Resolute Bay and Chesterfield Inlet put together.
The mine’s employees live side by side in what they call the “biggest hotel in Nunavut” and their collective efforts produce about one gold brick a day that is roughly the size of a loaf of bread.
As Agnico Eagle nears a milestone — the production of two million ounces of gold — Nunatsiaq News was given a tour of the above-ground part of Meliadine mine on Oct. 2 to learn about the life of people living at a site larger than many Nunavut communities.
Rotations
One of the 812 bedrooms at Agnico Eagle’s Meliadine mine. (Photo by Arty Sarkisian)
Many employees measure their total time at the mine not by months or years but by the number of rotations they’ve done.
They work 12 hours a day for two weeks straight without weekends off. Then they take two weeks off. After that, they go back to work and start over.
The gold mining process never stops, so miners split into day and night shifts. The day shift starts at 6 a.m. and ends at 6 p.m. while the night shift starts at 6 p.m. and ends at 6 a.m.
The average age of those on site is 40 years old, and they usually spend about five years on the job.
‘Never-ending hallway’
The indoor part of the Meliadine mine is a long “never-ending” corridor that leads to all the parts of the camp. (Photo by Arty Sarkisian)
The main indoor part of the mine is a long corridor that leads to an office, bedrooms and recreation spaces. The design allows for parts of the corridor to be closed off from the rest of the building in case of a fire.
The mine has a total of 812 rooms divided into 17 wings with 45 to 50 rooms per wing lined in a narrow hallway. The two-by-three-metre rooms each have a twin bed, TV and a small table.
There is little sound isolation between the bedrooms, so management tries not to house shift workers on the same schedule in neighbouring rooms. That means that if a night shift miner is off work, both rooms beside him or her will be empty.
‘Safety first’
This phrase is repeated constantly by different employees across the mine, and it regulates not only ore extraction but the day-to-day lives of the employees.
Meliadine is a completely dry establishment. Possession of alcohol or drugs is strictly prohibited. Those breaking this prohibition are automatically fired.
All employees have to wash their hands before entering the cafeteria. In close quarters like those in Meliadine, sicknesses can transmit very quickly.
And most employees have walkie-talkies with red emergency buttons in case of need.
‘Largest hotel in Nunavut’
Cafeteria during dinner hour at the Agnico Eagle Meliadine mine near Rankin Inlet. (Photo by Arty Sarkisian)
Keeping in shape can be hard at the mine, one of the employees jokes.
They can eat as much as they want at the cafeteria and the mine’s ice cream is a legendary treat that “makes it all worth it,” the same employee added.
The ice cream machine was broken on the day of the Nunatsiaq News visit.
However, the site also has a gym, gymnasium and recreation room with couches, musical instruments, pool tables and PlayStations. There is a small store with snacks and Agnico Eagle merchandise.
The mine hosts events like dog therapy, movie night and mitten-making workshops.
The purpose is to make the mine a pleasant place away from home, one of the employees said.
With 15 to 20 per cent of the mine’s employees being Inuit, Meliadine also has a country food kitchen that serves dried caribou, beluga, smoked Arctic char, bannock and other traditional food every two weeks.
Wenda Sinnisiak is a cleaner at the mine and says the country kitchen is the place where she meets with other Inuit to speak Inuktitut, which is important to her when she is away from her family.
Most of the time, employees are not allowed to bring their families to the mine site. But Christmas and New Year’s are exceptions.
In 2013, during the Christmas celebration at the cafeteria, employees were allowed to bring their partners and spouses to the site. During the party, one of the miners proposed to his girlfriend in front of everyone after the general manager’s Christmas speech.
“So she had no choice at that point,” said a long-time employee who witnessed the proposal.
But the couple has lived happily together ever since, he said.
Meliadine camp general helper Marjorie Menarc holds a mitten made by one of the mine's employees during a workshop. (Photo by Arty Sarkisian)
A place where couples breaks up
A place where French people takes care of their own and a place where Inuit are treated like low levels
Ever tried sailing,3 months of 12 hr days,oddly made a resupply trip up north, awesome trip,work hard , retired thank god,ocean a nasty place , family.💯🇨🇦⚓
Is it a Drama Club? Or… Work Place.😂🤣😆
It’s a great place to work, any workplace has its ups and downs. Bottom line is, you are there for you and your family. I’d like to go back again. Cheers!
Now they say they are saying these things, if you do you jobs are fine and doing a best job. There should be more public inquiry to the community and see what really happening. And health workers are doing. For those who are affecting their job too for putting them to disability leave. If you see it clearly, so many people who are trying to ne silent. And tjey say they are doing there job, everytime i try to ask for help, theres always vouchers and free gifts to community. There might doing illegal activity too.
How about Criminal Record Checks become mandatory for ALL jobs in Nunavut mines like the NWT mines.😳😲😲😳🤯😩😩😩
Working so hard now and when they are finally doing this meliadine mine most of the workers would be out and the mine would shut down. You don’t know is really happening inside of camp. If you see the report from the search of the contraban they bring to compare to inuit and quebec people are bring, you would a big difference.
Mine would not shut down. There must be A FEW hard working, law abiding citizens in Nunavut and productive.
Rankin Inlet isn’t the only village in Nunavut. Believe it or not.
Iqaluit is another “Town” I heard of in “None of it.”
How many inuit are long term employees or does the mine churn through them like workers at the northern?
👎=who are employed in mine and government
👍=who lives in community needs support
🫵 really need to see who say they understand and don’t do your job properly like rules and regulations you always say in the introductions, and just use the people who are suffering.
🤣🤣🤣
That would disqualify like 60% of the population.
Good.
Maybe. Just a BIG BIG BIG maybe Inuit may someday learn NOT to do the crime and work at getting a basic education. Just maybe…..
Never know.🤣🤯
It is also a place to work for wages, which is such a great need for all northern communities. Also a great place for sober living, since so many communities have under the influence propblems.
Everytime i try for help like how they are working, there’s always something that was suppost to be working on long time ago and therw’s always saying about the job that there are doing their job. Even bank of canada rate big cut rates and interest rate drops right away. Inuit don’t worry they find those pretenders and deserve what done to those who are affected. And they are now they can use the letters in there work place been along.
Gold about the size of a bread; 30 LBS? that’s about two mil a day? How much is a gold about the size of a bread?
A bread is a standardized unit. One twisty snake bannock = 2.1 furlong/2
Inuit do it to themselves. Tardy. No experience or basic education, bad despicable work attitude. No ambition.
Constantly biting the hand that feeds them. Inuit gets a labor job and promotes self to shot callers 🤣🤪
If I ever become KIA President, I would allow Baker Lake and Rankin Inlet to take 50% of the mine royalties to these two communities and the 30% to the region’s communities and leaving 20% to the Inuit Org. That how it should be, Rankin Inlet and Baker Lake…….