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Agnico questions board decision Darrell Greer Northern News Services Published Wednesday, July 27, 2011
The decision was contained in recommendations put forth by the Nunavut Impact Review Board (NIRB) to Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC) Minister John Duncan earlier this month. Agnico-Eagle regional manager of environment, social and government affairs Larry Connell hopes to reach a compromise with NIRB. Connell said Agnico-Eagle is unsure how to proceed in light of the two NIRB decisions. He said a July 4 decision indicated Agnico-Eagle hadn't supplied enough information for NIRB to make a decision on the road project and suggested the minister should send the application back to Agnico-Eagle for re-screening. "The second decision on July 8 refers the full mine project to a part five or six review, and has a whole section on the road showing NIRB's discomfort with what it perceives to be a splitting of the project," said Connell. "So we're wondering where does that leave us now?" Connell said the NIRB decision is not good for Agnico-Eagle's plans for moving Meliadine forward. He said there are several ways Agnico-Eagle can proceed, but it doesn't want to waste effort or anybody's energy by taking a route NIRB doesn't support. "The minister could follow the recommendation in the first decision and send it back for us to supply additional information and reapply. "But if we do that, and NIRB is still not willing to consider splitting the project, we just go in a circle no matter what news we put on the table. "If the fundamental issue to NIRB is one holistic review of everything related to the project, rather than doing the road separately, we'll still have the same outcome and lose several more months. "The second alternative is to persuade the minister to quickly go forward with the part five review and, as we start that process, find out if we can go back to NIRB and screen the road as an advance part of that review." Connell said the general consensus seems to be the second option is the one Agnico-Eagle should consider. But, he said, it's going to leave Agnico-Eagle with some grief either way. "We'd hoped to start construction of the bridge piers in September, when we have low water in the rivers and the worst of the winter weather hasn't arrived. "But I suspect there's no way in the world we're going to get any form of NIRB system for us to get something completed by Sept. 10. "We didn't plan to start construction on the actual road until January, so we hope to find a way to get the bridge piers handled as a separate entity. "There's four critical piers we're looking at because Char River could wait if we didn't get it done this year." Connell said a winter road was conceived by Comaplex Minerals when it was looking at doing its first bulk sampling. He said Agnico-Eagle has to convert a resource to a reserve at Meliadine, which means getting back underground to obtain a better bulk sample for an economic-feasibility study. "We want to step up the economic activity and, to do that, we have a capacity of 1.8-million litres of fuel at site. "We topped that up in May of this year, before we lost the winter road, but we're going to be out of fuel this month and have to airlift 1.5-million litres of fuel to Meliadine from Rankin Inlet. "That's just to continue our plan until October, when we'll suspend operations for the winter. "With a winter road and existing on-site storage, we'll run out of fuel in June again next year and have to bring in 3.6-million litres of fuel by heavy-helicopter lift." Connell said Agnico-Eagle needs a permanent road to transport fuel if it wants to continue stepping up the pace of development at Meliadine. He said while that may not be justification for the road on its own, the airlift cost of about $1 per litre represents a big chunk of the value of building the road. "What's wrong with building a 27-km road when you're at this advanced exploration phase? "We could always decommission the road if the program comes forward with a positive feasibility. "It's a logical approach that needs to be thought of if Nunavut is ever going to be in a position to advance these large deposits." Connell said people in Rankin have made it clear they prefer a public access road to Meliadine. He said while a delay in the road wouldn't mean the end of Meliadine, it would mean a loss of jobs and training during the next year for a workforce comprised of 50 per cent Inuit. "We're a business and have to make money, so if our margin gets eroded by costs going up, and not for good reason, that leaves less money to be shared by all. "Almost the entire region is frustrated by this decision because the road was going to be built with a lot of local labour."
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