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Prospectors not welcome

John Curran
Northern News Services

Fort Franklin (Nov 15/04) - Deline residents are up in arms over prospecting permits issued for their traditional lands.

Caribou Point and the north shore of Great Bear Lake, key harvesting areas for the community, are slated to become protected lands once the draft Sahtu Land Use Plan is ratified by the Sahtu Secretariat and both the NWT and federal governments.




Raymond Taniton is frustrated one arm of the federal government is paying to help the community protect this important area, while another arm is issuing prospecting permits. -John Curran/NNSL photo


"There are a lot of people who use those areas and we'd like to keep them quiet and protected," said Morris Modeste, a Deline hunter, trapper and outfitter.

The community is worried the presence of prospectors and exploration firms will make it that much harder to finalize the protection process.

"Those mineral permits are for three years so there are a whole bunch of questions that need to be answered," said Raymond Taniton, president of the Deline Land Corporation.

Not the least of which is why prospecting rights were granted while the community's wishes were ignored.

"At the end of the day, we'll have those lands protected but we'll have to deal with third party interests again," he said.

De Beers Canada was one of the firms that grabbed some of the north shore permits through the mining recorders office and the company offers little explanation for the community if residents feel they've been wronged by the process.

"That sounds like something they should be taking up with the government," said Linda Dorrington, spokesperson for De Beers, which has since optioned its 22,500 square-kilometres of permitted land to Pure Gold Minerals.

Even though the Sahtu Land Use Plan is only at the draft stage, in the past the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (DIAND) mine recording office, "used some discretion," said Karen Hamre, a board member with the NWT chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS).

Two years ago all that changed, she said, and since then, prospecting permits have been issued in the Sahtu to Matthew Mason, Darnley Bay Resources and Diamondex Resources, as well as De Beers Canada.

DIAND disputes the notion that anything is different with the process.

"In the past, going back decades, there's never been an interest in that neck of the woods from a minerals perspective," said Malcolm Robb, acting director of DIAND's Mineral and Petroleum Resources Directorate.

Another look at geology

Recent activity was driven by a re-interpretation of the geology by Diamondex Resources, which indicated the region might be right for kimberlites. Just because companies have permission to prospect on the properties, doesn't mean they'll be acting on it, Robb added.

"We're taking the position that will happen -- I think that's the way to do it: budget for eventuality," said Dave Clarke, Diamondex vice-president of exploration.

"(However) if you take the attitude, 'legally we can do this now,' you're just going to pay for it later -- no sense going down that road."

For Modeste and the rest of Deline, it would be nice if everyone was working with the same assumptions on Caribou Point and the north shore, given their importance.

"People go in August to almost the end of September to go caribou hunting," he said. Usually men from the community go out two to a boat, with about 10-15 boats in their hunting party. When they come back, their 18-foot vessels are each loaded with seven or eight caribou already smoked or made into dry meat so that it is lighter.

That way they can bring enough back for the elders and all of Deline.

"In the community, we share," he said. "For me, I like what I'm doing -- lot's of fresh air, it's healthy. I was brought up like that, taught by my dad Isadore Modeste."

Prospecting on Caribou Point and the north shore of Great Bear Lake doesn't just threaten subsistence hunters, the community has invested millions in creating a sport hunting tourism industry.

Morris Modeste, owner/operator of Modeste Outfitting and head guide for the Grey Goose Lodge and its big game hunting operation Great Bear Lake Oufitters, said the hunting grounds need to be protected.

The first season the community-owned lodge offered hunting packages, it attracted about a dozen guests. With Great Bear Lake's six-day packages now starting at about US$4,000 per person, the money is fast becoming a vital revenue source for the people of Deline.