Bathurst port and road delayed againGuy Quenneville
Northern News Services
Published Monday, August 18, 2008
Nuna Logistics announced last week it has asked the NunavutImpact Review Board (NIRB) to delay its technical review of theproject's environmental impact assessment, which was due to unroll thisJanuary.
It isn't clear when in 2009 the review is set to begin, norwhether this latest delay will offset the timeline for the port androad, set to begin operations in 2012, according to a previous estimateby Nuna Logistics.
Executives from Nuna Logistics said they were unavailable for comment.
The delay comes one month after the largest potential financialbacker of the port and all-weather road, Australia-based ZinifexCanada, said it is pulling out and building its own road west ofBathurst Inlet.
Zinifex, which hopes to have its Izok Lake zinc and coppermine ready for operation by 2014, will construct a road that will gothrough all its eastern Kitikmeot development projects including theLupin, Ulu, High Lake and Izok mines.
The road will end at Gray's Bay.
Three weeks ago, Nuna Logistics's project manager for BIPAR, BobGilroy, retired from Nuna, according to Jamie A. MacMillan, executiveassistant to Nuna president Mervyn Hempenstall.
Nuna wants to build a port at Bathurst Inlet capable of housingand shipping crucial mining supplies like fuel, as well as anaccompanying all-weather road going all the way south to ContwoytoLake.
In the wake of Zinifex's leaving, Nuna began talks with othermining companies including London, Ont.-based Sabina SilverCorporation, to shore up their interest in using the port and road.
Sabina is halfway finished the pre-feasibility study for its zinc-copper-lead Hackett River mine.
The mine is located east of Tahera Diamond Corporation's Jerichodiamond mine, has an expected mine life of 14 years and will alsorequire an all-season road supply system.
"The pre-feasibility study will look at ways to moveconcentrate to market," said Harvey Klatt, vice president ofexploration for Sabina.
"One of those alternatives - and really it's the only feasiblealternative, as I can see it - is to move the concentrate out by a roadout to the coast, and ship it out from there."
BIPAR is the best option for Hackett River and Sabina iscommitted to using the first 100 km or so of the 211-km-road, saidKlatt.
He added "They've got other people to (seek out) for the rest of that road."
