Cambridge Bay (Feb 06/06) - As the Nunavut Impact Review Board considers the future of Miramar's proposed Doris North gold mine, it will do so knowing elders from around the Kitikmeot are behind the company's vision.

Elders including Umingmaktuuq's Mary Kaniak, left, and Gjoa Haven's Donald Kovik, took turns asking questions about Miramar's proposal to the Nunavut Impact Review Board and expressed their support for giving the gold mine at Hope Bay a green light to move forward. - John Curran/NNSL photo

"Let's say yes," Taloyoak elder Steve Alookee said while addressing the board. "The people of the Kitikmeot don't want this opportunity to go out the door."

Approximately two dozen elders took turns asking questions and similarly expressing their support to the project.

Tom Long, Miramar vice-president of legal, began the final day of the week-long hearings in Cambridge Bay by giving an update on a number of environmental issues identified in the past by the board as areas the company needed to provide more information about.

This included the use of Tail Lake as a tailings pond and what affect that might have on wildlife and residents in the region.

"Even if caribou drank out of Tail Lake 365 days a year, which they don't because it's frozen for three-quarters of the year, and then people eat those caribou, there would be no health risk to the humans or the animals," he said.

Miramar plans to gill net all of the approximately 2,400 lake trout living in the lake as they would not be able to survive once production begins. The fish will be distributed to the communities so they will not go to waste.

Because fish habitat will be destroyed, if only temporarily, while Tail Lake is being used to hold the gold mine tailings, Article 20 of the Nunavut Land Claim requires Miramar provide compensation to the Inuit in some way for the loss.

"In addition to creating more fish habitat in Doris Lake, we plan to make it easier for Arctic char to make their way to Roberts Lake," said Long.

"It's wonderful to hear the company is going to take good care of the lake," said Gjoa Haven elder Donald Kovik. "Here in the Kitikmeot our population is growing fast - the fish population will eventually grow fast, too."

Long said the company was committed to working with the region to maximize employment and training opportunities for Inuit through all stages of development on the Hope Day greenbelt.

"It's nice if there's a job, but if you don't know how to do that job it's not much good," he said. "We want to help build capacity in the communities, because it costs us more money to bring someone in from Vancouver than it does to hire someone from Cambridge Bay, for example."

The current estimate is there will by 68 jobs during construction and 149 once the mine is operational, said Heather Duggan, Miramar vice-president of human resources.

"We expect about 40 per cent of those will be from Nunavut," she said. "That's what we think we can draw initially. We'd set goals to increase that each year."

An additional 14 jobs related to catering would also be contracted out, she said, with most of those people expected to be from the Kitikmeot.

The board is expected to take 30 days before making a recommendation to the federal minister of Indian and Northern Affairs.

"It then usually takes three months for the minister to decide whether or not to issue the project certificate," said Long.

"Three months was the old government, you never know, maybe this new government will move faster."

If a project certificate is granted, Miramar could move on to the rest of its permitting, such as applying for a water licence.

"We were targeting the end of 2007 for the start of production," he said. "But that's likely going to be more like late 2008."

That's providing the company passes this stage in the coming months.