KUGLUKTUK/PELLY BAY - Four people from Kugluktuk - three of them previously unemployed - will be receiving about a month's work starting this week courtesy of a Chinese-owned company that recently purchased two nearby exploration projects from former owner OZ Minerals.

But things were looking a little shaky until recently, said Donald Havioyak, former president of the Kitikmeot Inuit Association and now community relations officer for the company.

On June 15, Australia-based OZ Minerals sold the majority of its assets - which included the zinc deposits at High Lake and Izok Lake - to China Minmetals Non-ferrous Cold Ltd - Minmetals for short.

Following the sale, Minmetals created a subsidiary named Minerals and Metals Group (MMG), which has retained OZ Minerals' Canadian development staff in Thunder Bay.

Until five weeks ago, there were no plans to do any work at either Izok Lake or High Lake, the latter of which is 175 km southeast of Kugluktuk, said Havioyak.

Late last year, when OZ owed money for loans totalling $1 billion, the company deferred the feasibility studies for both Izok and High Lake in a bid to save cash. There was also the market collapse and tightening of belts among exploration companies in Nunavut, where spending in exploration is expected to drop by $158 million this year, according to Statistics Canada.

"After the financial crisis, most of the people understood early this spring that there may not be any projects going on," said Havioyak, who began his position last summer.

"But when (the jobs this summer) came up - good news - they're all happy. At least it's better than nothing. It's four or five weeks of work for these four people who are going to be working."

Havioyak said he gets resumes from people in Kugluktuk and other Kitikmeot communities every week, but his main challenge now is making sure that people still know the projects are under development, especially now that they're owned by a new company.

"It really makes a difference to the company to make sure that their presence is in the region, which helps raise people's awareness of the company," said Havioyak.

He added that as more work becomes available, MMG will be recruiting workers from the rest of the Kitikmeot region.

MMG was able to pump operating money into the development of those projects where OZ could not before, said Andrew Mitchell, development manager for MMG's Canadian division.

MMG will be spending approximately $1.4 million to drill a number of untested targets at High Lake; no work will be done at Izok. The crew, which totals 35 people, began mobilizing to site this week and will begin drilling next week, added Mitchell.

"The budget strings have relaxed modestly," he said. "It's not a huge sum and it hasn't really changed the strategy for the region fundamentally."

The same goes for the Bathurst Inlet Port and Road, the $270-million transportation system OZ Minerals was reconsidering as a means of transporting supplies and ore to and from High Lake and Izok Lake.

Other options include an alternate $450-million supply road that would go up to Grays Bay on the Coronation Gulf and one going from Izok Lake to a point on the Coronation Gulf approximately 18 km east of Kugluktuk

"We're still seriously considering it as an option," said Mitchell of BIPAR. "We think we have a pretty good answer as to what the implications of the other two routes are; what we don't have are some of the benefits of running the route along BIPAR. We're working on developing a better understanding of those."

According to the projects' draft environmental impact statement, construction will create up to 260 jobs, with Inuit holding up to 30 per cent of those positions; 57 full-time personnel will be required for the operations of the port and road.