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KITIKMEOT
An Inuit-owned corporation is delving into the high risk world of grassroots exploration in the hopes of striking rich with its own mine on its own land.

Scott McLean, left, president and CEO of HTX Minerals Corp., shakes hands with Charlie Evalik, chairman of the Nunavut Resources Corp., after signing a strategic alliance agreement for mineral project generation and exploration in the Kitikmeot Region, last Monday. - photo courtesy of HTX Minerals Corp.

In what they are calling a strategic alliance, Nunavut Resources Corp. -- the economic arm of the Kitikmeot Inuit Association -- has signed an agreement with junior resource company HTX Minerals Corp. to generate mineral projects and exploration in the Kitikmeot region.

"We need a vehicle to look at Inuit-owned lands, otherwise it's just sitting there for other companies to do it," said Charlie Evalik, president of the Kitikmeot Inuit Association and chair of Nunavut Resources Corp. "And this alliance is struck for that purpose. Together with HTX, we hope to accelerate the discovery of economic ore deposits."

Founded in 2007, Ontario-based HTX is currently a private company specializing in mineral project generation. The company does not have any projects in Nunavut but plans to use the alliance "to generate projects for the benefit of both strategic alliance partners," president and CEO Scott McLean said.

"(The alliance) does give us that relationship and that partner building from day one that allows the company to carry a certain amount of social licence as we go forward and explore the region," McLean said. "From the KIA side, (the alliance) does a number of things and that includes really letting the people of the Kitikmeot become active participants in exploration so they will have a stake, they will have an ownership in any projects that are evolved, and if we're good enough at what we do, hopefully they will be rewarded with a discovery."

Tom Hoefer, executive director of the NWT and Nunavut Chamber of Mines, called the alliance "innovative," and an interesting development in the evolution of the North's mining industry.

"Over the last 20 years we've seen our industry and aboriginal groups move from being basically two solitudes, with aboriginal groups not being part of industry at all, almost being opposed," Hoefer said. "And what we're seeing today is these two solitudes growing into stronger and ever-growing partnerships."

The diamond industry in the NWT and recent gold mining industry in Nunavut has seen the creation of well over 50 new aboriginal businesses, Hoefer added.

"What it's telling me is mining is no longer an industry that's apart from community, rather community and industry are growing into one."

Hoefer likened the business approach of the Inuit group to the days of the fur trade.

"The fur trade was one way of using the land in a responsible way to help create economic development and with that industry very much diminished from its former glory, we're now at a point where aboriginal groups are looking for another way to use their lands to responsibly create economic development opportunities," Hoefer said. "And mining is a very powerful machine to do that, especially if you could find something."

As the Inuit of Nunavut enter the world of higher risk grassroots exploration, they will also gain a greater understanding of the issues faced by industry, Hoefer said.

"Exploration isn't for the faint of heart," Hoefer said, noting statistics that show only one project out of a thousand becomes a mine. "You want to be careful and it's a high-risk business."

HTX and Nunavut Resources plan to have a program put together by May, which will include specific target areas for exploration, the number of people that will be required, who will be involved, and how much capital will need to be raised.

The agreement, signed at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada convention in Toronto last week, has an initial term of five years.

Nunavut Resources is seeking a minimum of $18 million, through private capital, to be invested in multi-commodity exploration within the region.

In response to concern that more landowners moving into exploration might compete unfairly with other junior exploration companies, Hoefer said the more the merrier.

"From a competitive perspective, I think the more companies we have exploring on the land the greater opportunity there is for finding something," he said. "And the more chances to find something then the greater the opportunity to create wealth and jobs and businesses for Nunavummiat."

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