Yellowknife (July 24/06) - West Hawk Development is considering the Sahtu region for a potential coal mine and gasification plant which could cost billions of dollars.

Three potential sites in the Sahtu are being considered by the company, including Seagull Island, Tate Lake and Fort Norman, said Peter Dickie, vice president of corporate affairs for West Hawk.

A worker takes coal samples in the Sahtu region for West Hawk Development. The company recently had community meetings in Norman Wells and Tulita regarding its potential mine site and gasification plant. - photo courtesy of West Hawk Development

"We've picked up the options on the coal licences for the three areas," he said.

The company's long term goal is to extract coal from a mine and use a process called gasification to break down the components of coal into a gaseous form.

Once in a gaseous form, it would then be transported along the proposed Mackenzie Valley pipeline, said Dickie.

West Hawk would extract the coal from a potential mine, but the gasification process would be carried out by another company, said Dickie.

One potential company is LUGRI, a South African based company which is one of the five companies in the world that has the technology to perform gasification.

LUGRI recently signed a non-disclosure and coal-testing agreement with West Hawk.

"Lugri would build a plant on site and we would provide the coal," said Dickie.

The proposed mine site and gasification plant will depend on the Mackenzie Valley pipeline being built.

"We would like to tie things within a year of the start-up of the Mackenzie Valley pipeline," he said.

The Vancouver based company recently had preliminary talks with elders in Norman Wells and Tulita along with holding community meetings.

A lot of the elders and community members had a difficult time understanding the terminology used by the mining company, said Bobby Clement Jr., the communications officer for the Tulita Yamouria Community Secretariat.

More graphics and pictures would have made it easier for people to understand he said.

"Personally, I don't want the project to go ahead," added Clement Jr.

"People in the community think it's pretty exciting," said Todd McCauley, president of the Norman Wells Land Corporation, who was present at the community information session in Norman Wells.

The project is potentially quite a number of years away, said McCauley, but the technology is certainly interesting.

A number of community members also raised questions about land reclamation during the session, said McCauley.