SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A road through up the Slave Geological Province, joining the Bathurst Inlet Port and Road system was frequently discussed at the recent Strategic Northern Infrastructure Conference.

Kim Truter, president of Diavik Diamond Mines Inc., says a $4 million study by the three Yellowknife diamond mines on the feasibility of building a seasonal overland route to replace the first 151 km of the Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Road has been shelved, but the report is available to other parties – like the Deton' Cho Corporation – who might pursue the project in the future. - Guy Quenneville/NNSL photo

Though the project was pitched under various incarnations, one thing was clear: government and industry are in favour of the road, which would open up a mineral exploration area currently off-limits, except by plane.

Rick Meyers, vice president of diamond affairs for the Mining Association of Canada, brought up the subject after a presentation by Peter Taptuna, minister of economic development and transportation for the Government of Nunavut.

Taptuna discussed the Bathurst Inlet Port and Road Project (BIPAR), which proposes to build a port at Bathurst Inlet and a 211 km road from the port to the top end of the Tibbitt to Contwoyto Road. That prompted Meyers to ask Premier Floyd Roland about the GNWT's thoughts on developing a seasonal overland road from Yellowknife to Bathurst Inlet.

"There were comments floated around that the NWT government might not be in favour of such a thing because, by bringing stuff in from the North, through Nunavut, it might take away from transportation business and other enterprise activities in Yellowknife," Meyers told News/North.

"Looking at it from a broader perspective, any kind of interconnection between two territories, it allows for resource development. Whether it's on one side or another, it's going to benefit both territories."

Roland's answer to Meyers was similar: "We feel that although there's always going to be some discussion about losing some opportunity if it were to go from the coast inward," the premier said. "The idea that by expanding and opening up the development - that would create additional workload in the existing infrastructure that we have."

Roland said the territories are at a point where they need to be thinking about such investments in order to diversify their economies, with the NWT's GDP being especially dependent on the diamond mines and the discovery of new mines to replace them.

Even though he stopped short of saying the territory is ready to move forward on the overland road, Roland said his government must "pick the right (projects) that help us overall and start strengthening our economy and start opening it up."

Two groups have already taken a hard look at the seasonal overland road. After the winter of 2006, when the ice road suffered from poor weather conditions on its southern parts, the joint venture partners behind the road, BHP Ekati and Diavik Diamond Mines Inc., in partnership with De Beers Canada, spent $4 million on a study outlining an overland route.

The 151-km route outlined covered the length of the ice road, spanning from the end of the Ingraham Trail at Tibbitt Lake to the Lockhart Lake Rest Stop. The cost of the road, which would take two and a half years to build, was pegged at $190 million, said Kim Truter, president of Diavik.

"We actually made a decision to shelve this thing because we just didn't believe we could justify spending that kind of money when we were in the second half of our life," said Truter.

"However, the study remains available to government and various groups in the North. We think it's a real opportunity to get on with it and build that road."

The Deton' Cho Corporation, the business development arm of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, has seized upon the route outlined by the joint venture as the starting point for a seasonal road that would eventually end in the heart of the Slave Geological Province at the inactive Jericho Diamond Mine.

"The road to resources, as we would like to see it, is 564 km and will take us to the heart of Chief Drygeese Territory right into the Slave Geological Province," said Roy Erasmus Jr., president of Deton' Cho. The road would make mineral projects in the area economically feasible to develop, said Erasmus, adding that the corporation, which would create a subsidiary to build the road, knows of "approximately 11 known mineral deposits that would possibly become mines after the road was built."

"It would help the NWT diversify its mineral base," said Erasmus. Meyers agreed.

"You build a road anywhere in remote areas in this country and somebody will go out and do some exploration and ultimately somebody will find something," he said.

Meyers added that moving goods into the barrenlands from the south won't suit every project.

"You can't necessarily get everything from supplying by water. It's a short supply period. You're probably still going to have use of the ice road."

Andrew Mitchell, development manager of Canadian operations for Minerals and Metals Group (MMG), which is developing the Izok Lake base metals project near Kugluktuk, said a road from Yellowknife wouldn't work for his company.

"It's not really a practical means of sending concentrate out," said Mitchell. "We're sending out half a million tonnes or more a year out. If you send it down a road to Yellowknife, you're still a long way from anywhere, right? And then you're maybe going to get it across the lake and put it on the railway in Hay River, and then it's got to go to the coast, and then it's got to go overseas to the smelter - it's a very convoluted and expensive way to do things."