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QIA delegates question NTI uranium policy

NTI now supports uranium mining

JANE GEORGE

Everyone at the Qikiqtani Inuit Association and the Qikiqtaaluk Corp. is pleased with the QC’s major financial turn-around over the past five years. At the QIA’s annual general meeting this week in Iqaluit, the QC gave QIA a dividend cheque of more than $500,000. Some of this windfall may be used to sponsor a “truth commission” to look into the slaughter of Inuit sled dogs in the 1950s, 60s and 70s (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE).

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That’s the feeling from some Qikiqtani Inuit Association board members, such as Sytukie Joamie of Iqaluit, who say Baffin Inuit haven’t been properly consulted about Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.’s uranium policy.

NTI’s policy on uranium, in its draft form, shows enthusiasm for uranium mining in Nunavut.

At the QIA’s annual meeting this week in Iqaluit, Joamie said North Korea - which conducted a widely criticized underground test of a nuclear bomb last week - would be happy to learn how Nunavut is leaning towards uranium mining.

Uranium is a radioactive mineral used for fuel in nuclear reactors or nuclear bombs. Its price per pound has jumped from $7 in 2000 to more than $47 this August.

Right now, NTI does not grant uranium rights to sub-surface Inuit-owned lands for mining and exploration companies.

But the draft policy re-interprets the ban on mining to mean that NTI retains the rights to uranium on Inuit-owned lands, and suggests that NTI could participate in future uranium mining projects, or extract additional royalty payments from mining and exploration companies who apply to work with uranium on these lands.

“NTI supports uranium mining in Nunavut,” says the March 2006 draft policy, which is slated for further discussion in November at NTI’s annual general meeting in Iqaluit.

Although subsurface Inuit-owned land amounts to only two per cent of Nunavut’s land mass, the NTI draft policy states “NTI has an interest in all matters that impact the lives of Inuit. Thus, this policy includes NTI’s position on uranium mining in general for all of Nunavut.”

The policy has been the subject of consultations in the Kivilliq and Kitikmeot regions of Nunavut, which are shaping up as the new frontiers of uranium exploration in Canada. The boom in prices has uranium companies scurrying to explore western Nunavut’s potentially rich uranium deposits.

Mining companies with a short memory may feel times have changed since 1989. That’s when the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq Caribou Management Board recommended against approving a proposal for developing the Kiggavik uranium mine near Baker Lake.

The caribou management board is still no fan of uranium development, and recently sent NTI its comments on the policy.

The board says there are lots of holes and unanswered questions in NTI’s uranium policy. And it slams the policy as lacking hard information as well as being unclear, inadequate and full of unsupported conclusions.

In comments handed to NTI, the board challenges NTI’s right to mandate a policy that applies to all lands and waters in Nunavut, and says if NTI does develop policies, they’re supposed to be complete and comprehensive.

The board says NTI’s draft document and uranium policy’s “one-sided viewpoint” won’t allow groups to really weigh the pros and cons and that there’s not enough information about the potential impacts of radioactivity released into the environment: “We are asked to believe that the impact of uranium exploration on mining and development will be ‘minimized’.”

The board knocks the policy, saying it doesn’t look at the cumulative effects on caribou of exploration and development.

Indian and Northern Affairs Canada has no specific policy on uranium exploration in Nunavut, and under the Canada Mining Regulations, must issue prospecting and land use permits to companies that provide complete and accurate applications following all rules and regulations.

But if the proposed exploration activity is in a region with an approved land use plan, the Nunavut Planning Commission must first decide if the application conforms to the land use plan.

The Keewatin Regional Land Use Plan prohibits uranium development until “the NPC, NIRB, the NWB and the NWMB have reviewed all of the issues relevant to uranium exploration and mining” and, the plan also states, until “any future proposal to mine uranium (is) approved by the people of the region.”

In spite of the confusing regulatory environment, this summer mining companies were out once again to scour the land near Baker Lake and Kugluktuk for uranium, sinking millions into exploration.

Titan Inc.’s Thelon project is located 150 kilometers northwest of Baker Lake. Titan’s Thelon project is “drill ready, “ says the company’s web site, after a total investment of $5 million.

Near these two communities, there are promising deposits similar to those in the Athabasca area of Saskatchewan and the Kombolgiie area of Australia, which produce the highest grade uranium in the world.

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