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Nickel production, prices on the rise

Longer mine lifespan means more job opportunities for Inuit

JANE GEORGE

Production at the Raglan mine is going smoothly, says Denis Lachance, the manager of the Raglan mine, but production volume has been lower than projected.

It’s expected to rise by 10 per cent this year, up to one million tonnes from 915,000 tonnes, and, again, to 1.2 million tonnes in 2006.

Currently, the price of nickel is $6.25 a pound, up from about $4 pound a year ago. This makes Raglan “much, much” more lucrative, says Lachance, but that higher price of metals doesn’t mean the mine will actually make more money.

Although the mine is producing more ore, the level of nickel in the rock is down, so the actual amount of nickel from Raglan won’t go up until 2006.

With the lifespan of the Raglan mine now extended by eight years, to at least 2024, it’s time to create a workplace “more compatible with the cultural values of our Inuit employees,” says Lachance.

“Our problem isn’t the number of jobs,” Lachance said. “It’s keeping our Inuit employees in their position on a year-round basis.”

That’s why the mine may offer job-sharing options to Nunavimmiut. Under this scheme, there would be a pool of Inuit workers who would share a single position throughout the year.

“For many reasons maybe it would be better for them to work six, five or even three months a year,” Lachance said. “We’d like to put this in place so that the Raglan environment would be better adapted to the reality of Nunavik.”

The mine’s union is ready to support this approach as well.

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