DENINU KU'E/FORT RESOLUTION - Almost two years later than originally planned, Fort Resolution's Deninu Ku'e First Nation (DKFN) has begun to make boxes to hold core samples drilled by a mineral exploration company.

John David Sayine displays a box to hold mineral core samples. The boxes are being built at a small manufacturing facility in Fort Resolution. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

Acting Chief Louis Balsillie said the band has an order for 1,200 boxes from Avalon Ventures for its Thor Lake property.

That will mean about a month of work for three people in Fort Resolution.

"I think we'll break even," Balsillie said. "Maybe $1,000 or $2,000, but it creates employment."

Balsillie is hoping more orders can be obtained from Avalon Ventures and other mineral exploration firms so making core sample boxes can become an ongoing business.

Freddie Collins, one of the workers, said the new operation is important for Fort Resolution.

"It would bring employment for the community for some young guys to work," Collins said.

The boxes measure 3.5 inches (8.9 cm) wide and deep, and 59 inches (149.8 cm) long.

Balsillie said the band had originally planned to start selling the boxes to Avalon Ventures in the fall of 2008, but that never happened because a company requirement could not be met.

It wanted the boxes to have grooves in which to lay the core samples, but the band didn't have the equipment to create such grooves in the wood.

"The planer mill was $100,000," Balsillie said.

So, the band took $25,000 it had received from the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment (ITI) to buy materials for the project and bought grooved boxes from a Winnipeg company to fulfill the order. It then repaid the money from ITI.

Then last month, Balsillie and a group of elders took a tour of the Avalon Ventures exploration site at Thor Lake, about 100 km southeast of Yellowknife. The acting chief noticed the company is now using the type of core sample boxes that can be made in Fort Resolution. Once he pointed that out to the company, an order was quickly arranged.

Two years ago, the new manufacturing facility was to be housed in a renovated section of old Eagle Tech Manufacturing Ltd., a band operation which once built bathtubs for the NWT Housing Corporation.

However, snow collapsed the roof of the tin building in the spring.

That means the box building is being done in a boat garage of the defunct Nuni (Ye) Development Corporation.

Balsillie said the operation will eventually return to the old Eagle Tech site.

Funding is being sought to repair the building.

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