Raglan celebrates 30 years of its impact benefit agreement with Nunavik Inuit

Raglan Mine is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year and the company’s leadership is reflecting on progress that has been made during that time.

“I feel a huge sense of pride on both sides of the fence,” said Samwillie Grey-Scott, Raglan’s deputy director of public affairs and the first Inuk employee to hold a management position at the mine.

He started at the company 15 years ago.

“We have put in the effort,” Grey-Scott said in an interview. “Every year, we try and live up to the agreement that we signed.”

The Raglan Agreement, an impact benefit agreement that provides a framework for Inuit to benefit from what is extracted from the mine site, was signed Feb. 28, 1995, said a news release from the company commemorating the anniversary.

Raglan is inviting people from all around Nunavik to the mine on May 15 to celebrate.

The mine produces approximately 40,000 tonnes of nickel and lesser amounts of copper and cobalt annually.

The Raglan Agreement was one of the first impact benefit agreements in Canada. Now, Inuit in Nunavik receive $18 million annually in payroll and Inuit-owned businesses provide 25 per cent of contracted services at the Glencore Canada-owned mine, located on the Ungava peninsula of Quebec.

The Raglan Agreement specifies a profit-sharing component for beneficiaries and a donations program. More than $1.4 million has been contributed to community initiatives, and $600,000 worth of scholarships awarded, said the release.

Nunavimmuit have also received $254 million over the past 30 years through profit sharing, allowances and various payments.

Communication director Amélie Rouleau said that although there have been ups and downs, where at times locals have said plainly that what the mine was doing was not enough, “it is a relationship that is evolving, and [we are] nurturing it.”

One of those downs was a strike by workers that reduced production at the mine for approximately three months between May 24 and Sept. 8 in 2022.

Nunatsiaq News asked how Raglan might be affected by new challenges appearing on the horizon.

U.S. President Donald Trump imposed this week steep tariffs on all Canadian goods crossing the border. Rouleau said this shouldn’t directly affect Raglan operations because its ore is sent to Norway.

“It is Norwegian nickel in a sense, it comes from Canada but it is transformed there,” she said.

Retaliatory tariffs on some imported U.S. products, if imposed by Canada, might impact the buying of some equipment, Rouleau said. However, she thinks the company is “well-positioned” to withstand the hit.