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Answering concerns on mining AREVA holds series of meetings on Kiggavik uranium project
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, June 12, 2013
BAKER LAKE
It's been a hectic two weeks for AREVA Resources Canada as the company inches closer to a final decision on whether its Kiggavik uranium project can proceed on the land near Baker Lake.
A series of technical meetings were held in Rankin Inlet two weeks ago to address any outstanding issues following AREVA's submittal of its Kiggavik project technical comment responses on May 8.
Facilitated by the Nunavut Impact Review Board (NIRB), they involved a team from AREVA and a number of intervenor groups who have commented on the project.
AREVA then hosted a community round table in Baker Lake this past week, June 4 to 6, to allow Kivalliq residents to discuss, comment on and query the company's draft environmental impact statement.
Each Kivalliq community had two or three reps at the meetings.
A pre-hearing conference was held following the round-table discussions to discuss the results of the two meetings, and the path forward for the final Kiggavik environmental assessment.
AREVA manager of Nunavut affairs Barry McCallum said the intervenors gave the company about 400 information requests in July of 2012, which took to January of 2013 to respond to.
He said a round of comments then took place, with more detailed technical comments, as opposed to requests for information.
"We responded to more than 200 of those, which was two rounds of written back and forth," said McCallum.
"We made more than 70 additional commitments during the Rankin meetings to insert into our environmental impact statement.
"We made a presentation in Baker on what's in the draft environmental impact statement, and community representatives asked questions.
"The Rankin meetings were chaired by NIRB executive director Ryan Barry, while Elizabeth Copland chaired the meetings in Baker."
McCallum said the company is resolving more and more issues on its way to a final environmental impact statement that will include input from the various groups.
He said very few outstanding issues remain.
"We committed to better integrate Inuit traditional knowledge into the final impact statement.
"A little more detail was requested on marine shipping, road-option plans, dust, caribou and updates on socio-economic numbers.
"We agreed to incorporate all of the caribou and wildlife data, using more data sources than we did before."
McCallum said the next step will see NIRB give AREVA a pre-hearing conference report, which will include the guidelines for the final environmental impact report on July 4.
He said AREVA will then prepare its final statement for review, which will lead to another round of queries and, possibly, one or two technical comment meetings.
"We appreciate the information exchange, and will use it to prepare a sound final environmental assessment report by Sept. 30, 2014.
"This will put the final hearings in the first quarter of 2015."
Coun. Sam Tutanuak was one of three Rankin delegates to attend the Baker meetings, the round table was interesting and very informative.
He said the answers given to representatives from across the Kivalliq were quite thorough.
"I asked how much water they would be using per day at the project site and was surprised to hear it would be a cubic metre," said Tutanuak.
"I wanted to know the procedure they'd be using to recycle or purify that amount of water, and I was satisfied by the technical answer I was given.
"There was a lot of concern expressed on the high level of unemployment in the Kivalliq, and people wanted to know AREVA's plans for hiring.
"AREVA noted in its presentation it expected to employ between 200 to 300 Kivalliqmiut once the project was operational, and that was good news to hear."
Tutanuak said he's pulling for the project to go ahead because of the high level of unemployment in Kivalliq communities.
He said Kiggavik will help bring prosperity to the region.
"I'm all for creating employment, even though some groups and regulatory bodies may oppose it due to the danger levels they see attached to the project.
"I'm convinced AREVA will do its very best to live up to all its promises.
"There's going to be people out there who disagree with my opinion, but I believe AREVA are here to dig out whatever's out there in the safest way possible.
"There were a lot of regulatory bodies in Baker asking a lot of technical questions, and, in my opinion, the answers opened a lot of eyes and ears even more to the safety and benefits of this project."
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