Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Apr 19/00) - An arbitrator will have the final say on any disagreements between the company and government concerning the terms and conditions of the surface leases for the Diavik diamond mine.

Dispute settlement processes in the five leases for the mine site were introduced to avoid costly court battles, said Annette McRobert, manager of land administration for the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development.

"The arbitration that is in these leases is strictly with regard to the terms and conditions of the lease," said McRobert.

The arbitration option applies only to disputes about requirements specified in the lease, such as annual lease payments and notice periods for doing such things as surveys, McRobert said.

Arbitration is not an option for resolving disputes surrounding issues such as restoration of the mine site and adjustments to the security deposit, said McRobert.

"The use of arbitration is to resolve questions other than obligations of maintenance, repair and condition of premises as set out in the lease or licenses," McRobert said, referring to guidelines prepared by the federal department of justice.

"If we said, 'You're in breach of this condition because you had a fuel spill and you didn't clean it up,' they could not come back and say we disagree because that is a matter with regard to the state of the land itself and not how we're applying a condition in the lease."

The company and the government can still ask the courts to overturn an arbitration decision.

Both the environmental agreement and the lease agreements provide for arbitration only after an attempt has been made to negotiate a resolution. The attempt to negotiate is to last at least 60 days. Following that the parties can call in a mediator for an additional 30 days.

If that doesn't work, disputes go to arbitration.

Under the terms of the leases, an arbitrator is jointly selected by the parties in dispute. If they cannot agree, each will select one arbitrator and the two would select a third.

Disputes over the security deposit and restoration of the mine site are open to arbitration in the environmental agreement.

Parties to the dispute share the cost of arbitration.