Baker Lake (Jun 14/06) - A proposed gold mine near Baker Lake is bogged down in regulatory red tape which could cost residents jobs and resource revenue, Kivalliq leaders warned last week.

Baker Lake Mayor David Aksawnee joined a chorus of officials calling for the Nunavut Impact Review Board to speed up approval for Cumberland Resources' Meadowbank mine, located about 110 km from the hamlet.

"We are aware Cumberland's proposed schedule is tight and that any unnecessary delay ... will delay (the) realization of much needed benefits to our community," said Aksawnee.

The mine, which Cumberland executives estimate could pump $30-million in wages into the regional economy over 10 years, is in the midst of an environmental assessment.

The impact review board wants more information about the project, including the details surrounding a 110-km all weather road from Baker Lake to the mine site.

But leaders like Aksawnee, Kivalliq Inuit Association president Tongola Sandy and Baker Lake MLA David Simailak said Cumberland's plan meets environmental standards and they want to see Meadowbank get the go-ahead.

"The delay caused by the board's approach will have serious repercussions," Sandy wrote in a letter to the impact review board dated May 10 that was released to the media last Wednesday.

"We are seriously concerned that there will be repercussions not only for this project but for other projects in Nunavut."

The association has negotiated an Inuit Impact and Benefits Agreement with Cumberland, though the details of the deal have not been made public.

The company estimates the mine will create 350 jobs during its two-year construction phase and 70 full-time positions for Northerners, mainly from Baker Lake, once operational. It would raise the average income in the community, which has a roughly 60 per cent unemployment rate, to about $50,000.

The executive director of the review board, which examines the environmental footprint of potential mines like Meadowbank, was out of the office and not available to comment before press time.

Cumberland Resources hopes to begin shipping heavy equipment and fuel into Baker Lake this summer, but exploration manager Gordon Davidson said that timetable is now threatened.

"We always want to be optimistic (but) we are at risk of losing a year," he said last week from Vancouver.

After nearly two years of meteoric gains, the price of gold has tumbled almost $100 during the last month to about $620 per ounce. While Davidson said that is still above an acceptable threshold - the company forecast about $400 an ounce when it decided to go ahead with Meadowbank - rising fuel and labour costs mean Cumberland wants to begin production sooner rather than later.

The mine is expected to produce 2.9 million ounces of gold during its eight-year lifespan, which would have a value of about $1.8 billion at today's prices.