NUNAVUT
Nunavut carving stone is a means of employment for up to several hundred full-time Nunavummiut carvers.

Mike Beauregard, resident geologist with the Department of Economic Development and Transportation, at the 2014 Yellowknife Geoscience Forum trade show in Yellowknife on Nov. 26. Beauregard made a presentation the following day summarizing the work the territorial government is doing to catalogue Nunavut carving stone deposits and what the catalogue could mean for commercial carving in the North. - Walter Strong/NNSL photo

Although other important economic commodities in the North are tracked and catalogued by the government, carving stone has not been tracked in any systematic way by the GN, at least not until about five years ago.

In 2010 Department of Economic Development Resident Geologist Mike Beauregard undertook a collaborative project that brought community carvers together with the GN and the Canada-Nunavut Geoscience Office to survey and catalogue old and new carving stone deposits across the territory.

Their goal was to verify the size and quality of traditional quarry sites, as well as to identify new deposits.

"It's a collaborative effort," Beauregard said. "Artist suitability is huge. Anybody can find a soft stone, but only a carver working with his files can tell you if he's going to take it home or not."

There are no firm estimates for what Inuit carving stones mean for local economies, but Beauregard said that for the downstream or gallery sales, estimates run as high as $30 million in value per year.

What is known is that a large quantity of stone is quarried every year.

"There's 500 to 800 metric tonnes being gathered each year to be turned into carvings," Beauregard said.

Up to two-thirds of quarried stone ends up as debris, but that's still a large home industry.

"We know there was a million pounds on average (per year) flowing out of Korok Inlet alone," Beauregard said of the traditional site located near Cape Dorset.

"People don't appreciate how many carvings are flowing out of the North."

Most Nunavut soft stone (stone carvable with hand tools, but harder than soapstone) has been quarried at two large deposits at Korok Inlet on south Baffin Island, and the main quarry in the Belcher Inlet near Sanikiluaq.

Sanikiluaq carvers have quarried 50 tonnes of carving marble since the 1970s. The Korok Inlet, Nunavut's largest quarry, has been supplying 450 tonnes per year over the same time.

One third of Nunavut carvers rely on the Korok Inlet deposit, but if they run out there, Beauregard's program has helped to uncover a formerly undocumented 30,000 tonne reserve at the Sanikiluaq quarry.

The 30,000 tonne deposit represents more unquarried stone than Korok's total stone output since the 1970s.

Since the carving stone program began, 57 community carvers and guides have taken GN workers to traditional sites across the territory. At the same time, new sites were identified and evaluated.

As of this summer, 94 carving stone deposits have been documented by rock type, artisan suitability, deposit size, GPS co-ordinates, photos, and samples for geochemical analysis.

"Seventeen out of Nunavut's 25 communities are now known to have access to substantial local carving stone resources," Beauregard told participants at the 2014 Yellowknife Geoscience Forum on Nov. 27.

"Eleven quarries . and 15 additional undeveloped deposits have sufficient stone to provide at least several decades worth of stone to the nearest community."

Major deposits recently identified include the Kugaaruk deposit near Repulse Bay - 60 times larger than the Korok Inlet deposit -- and the Iglulik deposit near Hall Beach, 30 times larger than Korok.

"Four years of reconnaissance and one year of significant deposit evaluations has led to an understanding of the supply side to Nunavut's arts industry," Beauregard said.

The majority of Nunavut carvers work out of Iqaluit where carving stone is transported in from remote quarries.

What remains is to work out infrastructure and marine distribution to help spread the carving stone wealth.

Until then, carving stone will continue to be quarried by hand -- blasting destroys carving stone -- and drawn out one small load at a time.

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