How much uranium does the Kiggavik Project have and how long would the mine be open for?
Our current estimates indicate that there are approximately 44,000 tonnes of uranium ore reserves at Kiggavik. We foresee that mining activities would start 2 to 3 years prior to milling. Based on anticipated production rates of 2,000 to 4,000 tonnes of uranium concentrate, also known as “yellowcake,” mining would last 13 to 25 years, while milling would last 11 to 22 years.
Hello I am a Nunavut resident who has lived here for 33 years. I am married to an Inuk. We spend a lot of time on the land harvesting different animals over the entire year. We have noticed over the past 10-15 years or so, that there are way too much helicopter and other aircraft trafifc related to mineral exploration and mining all over the Kivalliq region.
This has definately disturbed the caribou which we depend on tremendously for our frequent meals and clothing. Caribou have become skittish, difficult to approach, spend a lot of time running which makes them difficult to hunt and the meat is inferior ( bad tasting due to the lactic acid buildup in the muscle tissue) and often skinny.
Although pilots are supposed to fly at least 1000ft above ground, while out on the land we frequently see aircraft flying way below this level. It is a big problem all over Nunavut and hunters are very angry about this. Caribou with calves especially are very sensitive about this. Negative cumulative impacts of several mineral related companies over each season are definately impacting caribou and possibly muskoxen as well when the calves are very young and need bonding with their mothers. This was seen a couple years ago at Ferguson Lake where muskoxen 2 calves were abandoned when the mineral exploration company was conducting both ground work by snowmobile and aircraft.
Muskoxen have a TAH , (quota) for each community. Every muskoxen are very important to Inuit. Every one muskoxen lost in this manner is one less opportunity for the communty and making the muskoxen population recovery slower. Caribou meat and hides in replacement value in our region is worth more than a Million Dollars or more.
An additional mines will mean more aircraft disturbance over the tundra including the inevitable roads and ground traffic relating to mining.
Also , anyone who has some background in western science knows that Uranium has a long half life ( couple thousand years) for the radiation for this mineral to degrade and become safe again. This radiation is a carcinogen (causes cancer)to all animals including humans who become exposed to it . It also changes cells (mutates cells) of animals/humans where they can develop abnormalities/deformities, diseases that can be passed on to future generations ( from mother to unborn child). This is a point many Inuit who do not have this knowledge do not realize. Uranium brought out of the ground, processed is not nickle , zinc , diamonds nor gold . Some of it will inevitably will get into the environment as it is extracted from the earth( i.e dust etc). tailings will not be 100% clean. It does not leave the same footprint on this earth. It is SIMPLY NOT WORTH THE RISK for our future generations of people living here and for the ecosystem as a whole. This is why many countries and canadian provinces have said no to Uranium mining.
I have personally seen the messes all over Nunavut where many mineral exploration and mining companies have left behind over the years for us taxpayers who must pay to later clean ups. Many declared bankrupcy and just walked away.
A case in point is Nanisivik Mines who operated in North Baffin for over 20 years. This mine extracted zinc and lead. I lived In Arctic Bay for 10 years and 1 year in Nanisivik during the operation of the mine.
During the last year of operation the water board shamefully had allowed the mine to deposit their toxic tailings into their pond( which had filled up to capacity) to Dry tailing pond. During the winter with very little snow cover ( and that happens in Kivalliq once in a while) the tailings dries out despite the shale cover they put on top, the wind blew that stuff all over the surrounding mountains and the community,. I woke up one morning in March to see all my windows covered with tailing dust. This was later tested positive for lead which is very poisonous to the human nervous system , especially children where their brains are growing. It causes brain damage and is a reason why it is a banned substance in North America. The tailings also contained cadmium which is a carcinogen ( causes cancer). Remember, families with children, pets lived there for almost 20 years playing outside in the contaminated soil and snow. Ore trucks bringing pure processed zinc and lead to the large storage facilities had no tarps covering the ore during transit. Inevitably dust fell off or blew off the trucks over the years. My husband was a truck driver there, I know what I am talking about and saw it with my own eyes.It was found that the entire community was contaminated and is the reason all the houses and buildings had to be burried underground instead of being moved to Arctic Bay for community use. A huge land area has been contaminated, including mountain sides that can never be cleaned up. Where will all that stuff end up? In the ocean food chain down hill where rain and runoff will move it. Let not forget Ikpiarjukmiut ( Arctic Bay residents) depend heavily on marine mammals for food and clothing. The contaminants including Uranium if Mined near baker lake will also end up in plants and lichens that take up to 80-100 years to grow. it will bio accumulate over the years. caribou depend on lichen to eat during winter. It will also be leached out in to the water sheds.
By the way, In Nanisivik the water pond was also shamefully contaminated with tailings blown in from the surrounding tailings pond and contaminated roads. My husband used to get rashes on his skin when showering in Nanisivik. When we moved back to Arctic Bay the rashes went away imediately and never occured again.
Shamefully again, only miners had their blood tested on a regular basis for lead contamination, not the children, nor spouses who did not work at the mine.
Moral of the story is: DO NOT TRUST our Federal and territorial Governments, the mines, the agencies giving out the permitting systems to protect human health , the environment including our wildlife, plants watersheds which all life depends on WHEN POLITICS AND MONEY ARE INVOLVED.
I have seen the Mine in Nanisivik put a University summer student on the first plane south when he posted our drinking water test results which were not fit for drinking on the board at the Dome where all workers went to eat.
WHERE WAS DIAND???
WHERE was our Department of health?
To this date, none of the children and families who lived in Nanisivik over the 20 years have been tested for lead contamination and other contaminants that deposits for many years in your bones and fat tissues. It takes a very long time for your body to get rid of these contaminants. In the mean time causing untold damage to your body. Uranium contamination would be worse
As a last note, Inuit , Inuit organizations are often lured by the economic/job opportunities in the mining and reclamation industries as they/we are really desperate for work in Nunavut where we have the highest unemployment rate in Canada., my husband included where he worked for the industry for many years. Yes we all want to buy snowmobiles, ATV’s trucks, put food on the table……
Unfortunately, Inuit have been getting the short end of the stick for many years and still are. All they get is the lower paying jobs and the equipment ( vehicles) that other non Inuit do not want to use, poor working hours I am sad to say. Prejudice is well and alive. Mines fill their “quota” of Inuit according to the IIBA’s but the best jobs including permanent jobs (opposed to seasonal and term) are given to southerners ( And I am not being prejudiced, I was born and raised in quebec). Jobs are often given to employees who are already working for their company elsewhere south or their relatives.
My Inuk husband has been a reliable heavy equipment operator for more than 25 years who has always finished his term/seasonal work when working for the mines and reclamation work at DEW line sites without missing work, being on time every day, consciencious about his work, getting along with the people where he works for and yes, was never able to get permanant work ( compared to other non Inuit). More frustratingly, he has never been able to be at a supervisory level job ( of even acting for one day) despite his years of experience often compared to some “southern bosses he has had to work for over the years. NOW WHY IS THAT??? We do not know of one Inuk heavy equipment supervisor in any mine, exploration site, dew line cleanup site anywhere in NUNAVUT.
This is where NTI and QIA has dropped the ball and do not properly represent Inuit. It is not the Inuit job numbers that count, but the quality and working conditions of the jobs.
IN closing Mining jobs for Inuit is not all that cracked up to be. Most importantly, mining jobs is very short term in the grand scale of things ( mines open and close mostly within a few years ( running out of ore or closing due to economic trends or bankrupcy).
In closing, Inuit are intrinsically one of the few hunter societies left in the world today and will always be. That is who they are. They depend on a clean wholesome environment and ecosystem to harvest their animals. More importantly they are spiritually connected to the land for their mental and physical wellbeing. Humans set aside, as we are not the center of this world like a lot of us think we are, wildlife ,plants, water air cannot be compromised, all life depends on it including our own.
What legacy will your mine leave when shareholder profits are made, workers return south?
Hi Johanne,
AREVA Resources is absolutely committed to the environment, wildlife, the land, and the people of Nunavut. We have a 40 year history of safe operations in Saskatchewan, and throughout our Kiggavik Project activities, we have shown this same commitment to safe operation and respect for the land and the people in Nunavut.
The Environmental Assessment process carried out by the Nunavut Impact Review Board will give the people of Nunavut opportunity to hear and comment on AREVA’s development proposal, what the potential impacts are, how they will be mitigated, and whether the people would like for the mine to be developed.
You have raised a number of topics; we will do our best to address them all. Please let us know if you have any follow up questions.
• In our operations, Caribou have the right of way. The AREVA Wildlife Monitoring and Mitigation Plan has altitude restrictions (2000ft for long flights and 1000ft for shorter flights) weather and safety permitting, Our helicopter pilots must agree to these measures and must note any exceptions to them. A GPS track record is kept of all flights and we report a summary of flights and altitudes to the government and the Baker Lake Hunters and Trappers Organizations every month we operate.
• AREVA has heard concerns over aircraft disturbance to caribou similar to your concerns and we are working with a number of northern stakeholders to monitor and continually improve our operations. We firmly believe that operations can be reasonably carried out while considering and respecting the caribou and we are learning from other mining operations in the north, conducting baseline studies and assessing impacts and learning from Baker Lake residents through Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit (IQ) interviews, open houses and informal conversations in the Baker Lake office how to best design a mine with consideration for caribou.
• The Kiggavik Project is being designed to cause minimal harm to the environment and the land will be returned to as close to its natural state as possible through decommissioning. Financial assurances with landowners are currently in place and updated from time to time to ensure adequate funds are always available to properly reclaim the Kiggavik site.
• Modern uranium mines are designed, constructed, and operated to protect employees, the public and the environment from radiation. We have been successful in doing this: for example, our employees at McClean Lake in Saskatchewan receive only a small fraction of the allowable limit of 20 millisieverts (mSv) of radiation set by government regulators. We Continuously monitor our employees for radiation exposure and the results are independently assessed and submitted to the regulatory authorities as well as the employees. Saskatchewan uranium mine workers receive an average radiation dose of about 0.72 mSv. The non-occupational exposure for Canadians is about 2.4 mSv annually. As a comparison it is interesting to note that North American airline pilots receive between 3 and 5 mSv annually.
• From our experience with our other mines, dust is not found beyond a 2km perimeter from a mine. The Environmental Assessment process, though, will model the dust behaviour in the tundra.
• The Kiggavik Project Proposal outlines our general plans for tailings management. We plan to place the tailings back in mined out open pits and lay a rock cover over the tailings to decommission the pits. All tailings management systems at uranium mines operating in Canada today use this technology.
• Saskatchewan has almost 60 years of experience with uranium mining and in recent years, has produced more uranium than any other country. Independent polls in Saskatchewan have shown that there is 83% support for uranium mining.
• The Kiggavik site has operated for most of the past 35 years. We have been the operator since 1993. Kiggavik remains a clean site with sound plans for waste management, reclamation, spill contingency, and wildlife monitoring and mitigation (read more about them in our Annual Reports). There is a security deposit in place to cover the unlikely event that the company should fail to live up to its reclamation commitments.
• There are currently 25 local people working at the Kiggavik Camp. Our Saskatchewan operations have shown that we can maintain approximately 50% northern resident employment at our mining operations. We provide workers with a variety of training and provide opportunity for growth. Workers in the mining industry are well paid and provided with benefits for themselves and their immediate family.
After several decades of operation, our legacy will include a restored site, safe, environment, hundreds of workers with transferable skills, and billions of dollars injected into the Nunavut economy.