Iqaluit (Mar 01/04) - The Nunavut Impact Review Board (NIRB) has a busy schedule in the days and months ahead.

Stephanie Briscoe, executive director with the NIRB, says the Bathurst Inlet Road and Port Project has been forwarded to Ottawa but they have not heard anything yet.

Another important project for NIRB is the Dores North Miramar Mining file, with final hearing dates scheduled for June 14.

Cumberland Resources, located just outside Baker Lake, is another proposed gold mine NIRB will be working on.

NIRB will soon forward the Environmental Impact Statement guidelines to Cumberland.

"They are simply the drafting instructions they need to use with respect to drafting their environmental impact review statement," said Briscoe.

Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. is recommending that two new people be appointed to the board as soon as possible. Currently, NIRB has five board members and three vacant seats.

Five members is enough for a quorum, so decisions can be made, but the board will be left short if anyone is absent or has to be excused due to conflict of interest.

"Nothing has changed our understanding. The minister is processing those names. Our understanding is that NTI provided names and the minister is processing," said Briscoe.

On Tahera's Jericho Diamond Project, two months would not be an uncommon time frame for the minister to process a decision, said Briscoe.

"I would think it would take at least that long," she said.