Public hearings begin this spring on Jericho project

Sometime this spring, residents of west Kitikmeot will hear detailed information about the Toronto-based Tahera Corp.’s Jericho diamond mine project, and get a chance to ask questions and have their say about what’s likely to become Nunavut’s first diamond mine.

The Nunavut Impact Review Board, also known as the “NIRB,” will run the hearings, which will look at information provided in an environmental impact statement that Tahera submitted last week.

“Parties that have concerns with the document, or have comments or questions, can attend these public hearings in the affected communities, and the document is either argued against, or defended by the proponent, depending on the types of questions that are asked,” said Stephanie Briscoe, the review board’s executive director.

But before those hearings are held, the review board, the Nunavut Water Board, and various government officials will spend at least 60 days reviewing the document.

Once that work is done, the review board will set the dates for the public hearings. They’ll be held in Kugluktuk, Cambridge Bay, and Gjoa Haven. Bathurst Inlet residents will be flown to Cambridge Bay if they wish to attend a hearing, Briscoe said.

April is the earliest possible time for those hearings, because of the 60-day review requirement.

Another feature of the process, Briscoe said, is that the review board will hold special traditional knowledge forums to get valuable information from hunters and older people who have been using the land for generations.

“There has to be a technical forum, where the science comes out, but the board is also planning to hold what we’re going to call “traditional knowledge” hearings. It’s almost like sitting around the room, talking about the area of interest, how the area was traditionally used, the local knowledge, basic hunting rights,” Briscoe said.

All this was set into motion last week, when Tahera Corp. submitted its environmental impact statement for the Jericho project.

The impact statement is a large document that describes the project and assesses how it will affect the environment. It sets out the company’s plans for protecting the environment while the mine operates, and reclaiming the site after the mine closes.

The Jericho mine would be a tiny undertaking, dwarfed by the enormous Ekati and Diavik mines on the other side of the boundary dividing Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.

BHP’s Ekati Mine, for example, is 20 times bigger than Jericho. And Aber Diamond Corp.’s mammoth Diavik mine, which will soon go into full production, cost $1.3 billion to build. Tahera, on the other hand, will need only $55 million to build Jericho, which would operate for about eight years.

But if it’s built, Jericho would be Nunavut’s first new operating mine in many years.

To get there, Tahera must overcome hurdles: the lengthy regulatory process that’s just begun, and finding the $55 million the company will need to build the mine.

Tahera doesn’t have access to the kind of investment capital that’s available to big players like De Beers and BHP.

Greg Missal, Tahera’s environmental manager, said the company would like to strike a strategic alliance with a diamond processing firm. He said an agreement with a buyer willing to buy Tahera’s diamonds would make it much easier for the company to find investors willing to finance the project.

If Tahera’s proposal makes it through the NIRB’s round of public hearings this spring, and if its environmental management plans satisfy regulatory agencies, the company will get a “project certificate.”

That would allow it to apply for the all the permits and licences the company will need to operate, including a water licence.