Nanisivik: The old mine that won’t say die

IQALUIT — The key to Nanisivik Mine’s new lease on life is its plan to stretch its reserves.

The 25-year-old mine was to close in 2004, but now it’s expected to operate for two years beyond that — and maybe even longer.

“We started out with a 12-year lifespan,” said the mine’s general manager, Ron Light. “We’ve more than doubled that already.”

By mixing higher grade zinc ore with lower grade ore, the mine intends to keep its production up and increase its lifespan.

In this way, the mine will also maintain 210 jobs in Nunavut’s High Arctic, 20 per cent of which are held by Inuit.

Over the past two years exploration in the Arctic Bay-Nanisivik region showed more of the mine’s resources could be economically mined.

And adding to this good news was the development of a better way to take zinc out of the raw rock ore.

This method blends ore that has a high concentration of zinc with ore with a lower concentration.

“It has the potential to prolong the lifespan of the mine,” Light said. “If you use only the high-grade reserves, you would have ‘x’ number of years, but if you take this high-grade and add the lower-grade, you add to the lifespan of the mine.”

The process will produce ore with around 7 to 8 per cent zinc.

And it will take place in Nanisivik’s new dense-media separation plant, a $7 million facility that should be finished by May.

“We’re excited — this is the first time dense-media separation has been used in base-metal separation in the Arctic,” Light said. “We know it’s going to work.”

The technique, which is also used to treat diamond-rich rock, involves a “sink-float” process. This means that after the two grades of ore are mixed together they’re floated in water. The heavier metal particles sink while the light ones, which are considered waste, rise to the top.

The ore at the bottom is then fed to the mill where it becomes zinc concentrate.

“The waste will be hauled to use as back-fill in the mine,” Light said.

The mine usually produces around 100,000 tonnes of waste annually, but Light said this new dense-media method is expected to lower that amount.

The new process may also allow the mine to up its production from 800,000 tonnes of ore a year to more than 1 million tonnes.

Last year, the mine ended up with 100,000 tonnes of 57 per cent zinc concentrate, worth more than $100 million.

The Nanisivik mine continues to make money for its parent company, the Toronto-based Breakwater Resources. In 1999 it showed an operating profit of $17.4 million, mainly due to high prices and reduced expenses.

But while the shut-down of Nanisivik has been averted — at least for a few years — the Polaris lead-zinc mine at Little Cornwallis Island is still slated to close in July 2002.

“Unfortunately, the opportunities which are available to Nanisivik aren’t available here,” said John Knapp, general manager of Cominco Ltd.’s Polaris mine.

Knapp said exploration of other sites in the region didn’t produce encouraging results. The mine is now looking towards closure, followed by a three-year restoration program.

Nearly 240 employees will lose their jobs when the mine closes. Only around 15 are locally-hired workers, but the Polaris mine’s closure is expected to deal a hard blow to the High Arctic’s economy.