July
19, 2002
Greenland gold mine may
start next year
A Toronto-based mining
company, Crew Development, said this week that it may start production next
year on Greenland’s first gold mine.
Crew said in a company
statement that it believes the Nalunaq deposit, discovered in 1993, has potential
well beyond what is reflected in its current estimates.
The Reuters news agency
reported that the company will ship gold ore for processing to a plant outside
of Greenland.
"We are considering
processing the ore at a plant in Newfoundland, Canada, to begin with,"
Jon Steen Petersen, Crew’s vice-president of exploration, said in the Reuters
report. "In two years’ time, we hope to be able to prove sufficient
resources at the gold deposits to initiate processing in Greenland."
Crew owns 82 per cent of
the company, while the Greenland firm NunaMineral, holds the remaining 18 per
cent.
Nalunaq, on the southern
tip of Greenland, is believed to contain a stockpile of about 20,000 ounces
of gold.
The total measured and
indicated resources are about 500,000 tonnes of gold ore with a gold content
of 400,000 ounces or 12.4 tonnes, Petersen said.
Crew will soon release
a final feasibility study on financial and technical aspects of the project.
Later this year, application
for a mining licence is expected to be processed by Greenland officials.
TOP
July
19, 2002
Massive hydro project stirs
controversy in Iceland
The New York Times reported
this week that a massive hydroelectric project planned by Iceland’s state-owned
power company is creating a major political controversy in the small circumpolar
nation.
The $3-billion Karahnjukar
hydro project is expected to create 2,000 construction jobs and between 600
and 1,000 permanent jobs.
The plan calls for the
damming of two rivers, draining them through 24 miles of tunnels, and then pouring
the water through turbines to generate 700 megawatts of electricity.
When finished, the plant
would sell power to an aluminum smelter owned by Alcoa, the world’s largest
aluminum company. Alcoa may invest $1 billion in the project.
Iceland’s economy,
based on renewable resources industries like fishing, has been fading recently.
Its tourism industry has not done well, either.
For that reason, the government
hopes that the project will help keep Iceland’s dying rural towns populated.
The current plan was approved
by 44 of the Iceland parliament’s 63 members, which included 12 members
of the opposition. In a poll, 47 percent of Icelanders who responded supported
the plan, and 30 percent opposed it.
Environmentalists are enraged
because the project would be located in Europe’s second-largest wilderness
area. Europe’s largest wilderness area is Norway’s Svarlbard Island,
in the High Arctic.
TOP
July
19, 2002
Grizzly threat in the Yukon
The Associated Press reported
this week that a 30-mile stretch of the Firth River that was closed to paddlers
last week because of the threat of grizzly bears has been reopened.
The section was opened
Monday, Ron Larsen, chief park warden in Ivvavik National Park, told AP.
The Firth River begins
in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, but is not navigable until
Margaret Lake in the Yukon’s Ivvavik Park. From there, the river descends
80 miles northeast to the Arctic Ocean at Nunaluk Spit.
The section beginning at
Sheep Creek was closed after 19 grizzlies were found feeding on 22 caribou carcasses
in the area.
Earlier this month, caribou
were crossing the Firth River, which had unusually high water levels, leaving
22 dead. On July 9, park wardens counted the 19 grizzlies feeding on the caribou
and closed the river to paddlers.
Larsen said Ivvavik staff
flew over the area on Friday and couldn’t locate bears in the area. On
Sunday, two wardens began rafting down the closed section of the river. Larsen
said the wardens sent a message that three caribou carcasses remained but the
bears had left.
Last Friday, Larsen said
it could be seven to 10 days before the river was reopened to paddlers.
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