Lighting up the North

It’s been a decade since Nunavut became a reality, and the NWT & Nunavut Chamber of Mines is finally going to do what a number of its feistier members have already done: put boots on the ground in Canada’s newest territory.

It’s not about being politically correct, even though the 26,000 mostly Inuit residents of Nunavut officially became masters of their own land back in 1999.

These days, Nunavut is Canada’s gotta-be place for miners of almost every persuasion as its gold, uranium, iron, diamonds and base metals, along with oodles of untapped oil and gas, attract money and opportunity from around the world.

“The move to open an office in Nunavut is motivated by our members, and by the Nunavut Government,” said Chamber President John Kearney, Chairman of Canadian Zinc Corporation. “It’s a difficult challenge to do the job properly from Yellowknife.”

Kearney’s 20-member board (half represent each territory) will keep the Chamber’s main office in Yellowknife, and has set the goal of opening the Iqaluit satellite, with a general manager, by the end of 2010.

It has also renewed the leadership component at its Yellowknife base with the hiring of Tom Hoefer to its reprofiled top job as Executive Director. He took over September 6 from Mike Vaydik, who retires after 14 years as the General Manager (and who built the Chambersponsored NWT Geoscience Forum into the biggest annual event of any kind in all three territories.)

It’s a renewal, because Hoefer (who has a Master’s degree in Mineral Exploration) held the Chamber job prior to Vaydik. He went over to work as Diavik Diamond Mines’ spokesperson and winter road manager, and for a two-year stint most recently as the Director of Mineral and Petroleum Resources at the federal Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development in Yellowknife.

The new initiatives have been applauded by membership and government alike, says Kearney.

“Tom brings a unique experience to the Chamber, a long and increasingly successful career in both industry and government and is well known and respected by the aboriginal and local communities,” he said.

“The Government of Nunavut sees mining as an important part of their future development, one of the cornerstones of their economy.”

John Hickes, mayor of Rankin Inlet, knows well the volatility of mining in his homeland.

His town, on the western shore of Hudson Bay, started as a nickel mine in 1957, then deflated with its close in 1964. Today, though, his region is alive with fresh prospects and big investment in gold and uranium.

“It’s high time the mining association got involved in the territory,” he commented. “The writing’s on the wall; we’re one of the last unexplored regions in Canada.”

As Nunavut charges ahead from a bust-to-boom mining economy, fuelled by aggressive moves from Agnico-Eagle, AREVA, Baffin Land Iron Mines, Peregrine Diamonds and Newmont Gold, it has traded places with the NWT as the Arctic’s upstart mining region.

The great challenge for Kearney and Hoefer, and the industry they represent, will be in the inherent contrasts clamouring for attention under the single Chamber’s umbrella.

For example, Nunavut rose from 32nd place to 20th in the Fraser Institute’s annual friends-and-foes ranking of 51 global mining jurisdictions in its 2010 Survey of Mining Companies.

NWT also improved, marginally, but lost huge ground to Nunavut as it lurched from 33rd place in 2009 to only 30th this year. Another measure: for the five years 2005 to 2009, total exploration and appraisal expenditure in the NWT was $642 million, less than half that of Nunavut at $1.3 Billion.

Kearney brings his own measure of credibility to his job as Chamber Chair. He is living the NWT’s labyrinthine regulatory experience as his Canadian Zinc Corp plods through its seventh year of permitting to get the massive Prairie Creek silver-zinc property into production in southwestern NWT.

What are the contrasts between the two territories?

“Land access (in Nunavut) is less problematic, and the permitting process is somewhat simpler. These are the two issues that weigh negatively for the NWT,” Kearney explains, but adds both share two very large barriers to development: an experienced workforce, and the cost of power.

But like miners everywhere, Kearney suffers from chronic optimism. He’s bolstered by the positive start that Agnico-Eagle has had with its Meadowbank Gold development near Baker Lake. There, the jobs made available, even to unskilled Inuit, have rejuvenated an economy and a society that was in deep decline.

“The mining industry is the largest employer of aboriginal people across Canada,” he recalls, and clearly sees that as a major incentive for his industry, and the North, to grow with.