MINE RECLAMATION – The Government of Canada has awarded a contract worth about C$19 million for remediation work at the former Colomac mine site. The Colomac mine site is a former gold mine located about 220 kilometers northwest of Yellowknife. The mine operated from 1990 through 1997. It is one of three mines in the Northwest Territories that reverted to the Crown in April 1999 when the mine’s owner at the time, Royal Oak Mines Inc., went into receivership. Remediation work has been on-going at Colomac since 2003. The remediation work is a joint venture between two aboriginal firms, Tlicho Engineering and Environmental Services Ltd. of Behchoko, Northwest Territories and Aboriginal Engineering Ltd. of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. The two-year contract covers final remediation of the site, including: major demolition activities (primary and secondary crushing facilities, mill complex, maintenance shop and camp); hydrocarbon remediation (restoration of Steeve’s Lake shoreline, free product recovery and soil treatment); site restoration (Truck Lake channel construction, stream crossing restoration) and capping of the non-hazardous landfill sites as well as continued provision of site services and maintenance. The contract, which follows a competitive process, will last until April 2012 when the companies will conduct a full and final demobilization of the site.

REGULATION – In Canada’s federal budget unveiled March 4 in Parliament, C$11 million has been earmarked to accelerate the review process for resource projects in the North and several new initiatives have been proposed to improve the federal regulatory system, reducing red tape and the administrative burden. “The resource potential in Canada’s North is world class, yet potential investors in northern resource projects face complex and overlapping regulatory processes that are unpredictable, costly and time consuming,” said Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty. Streamlining the regulatory regime and removing barriers to private investment will support economic growth and help provide opportunities for Northerners by unlocking the resource potential in Canada’s North, while at the same time protecting the environment. The 2010 budget provides $11 million over two years to Indian & Northern Affairs Canada to support the acceleration of the review of resource projects in the North. “These reforms will provide clarity and certainty for investors while ensuring that the environment is protected and that Canada’s obligations under existing land claims agreements with Aboriginal groups are respected,” Flaherty said.

John Kearney, president of NWT & Nunavut Chamber of Mines said the mining industry has long awaited such changes and the “new initiatives hopefully will be implemented quickly and will not only remove the current regulatory barriers to investment, particularly in mineral exploration and mine development, but also will provide the clarity and certainty that the minerals industry needs to encourage mineral exploration and development in the North.”

Nunavut

COAL – The Nunavut Impact Review Board has rejected a controversial proposal from Weststar Resources Corp. to open a coal mine on Ellesmere Island, ruling that “the high likelihood of immitigable impacts” to wildlife and globally-significant fossil beds in the region demand that the project be “modified or abandoned” by its B.C.-based developer, Canwest News Service reported March 5. The thumbs-down recommendation from, filed Feb. 22 with the Canadian government, was hailed as a victory of fossil science over fossil fuel by the U.S.-based Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, which had described the proposed Weststar coal project as a threat to “some of the most significant sites in the world” for fossil researchers. The board's decision puts the project’s fate in the hands of the federal government and could force the company to radically redesign its development plans. In June, Canwest News Service reported the discovery on Ellesmere Island of a set of 53-million-year-old fossilized teeth from a huge, hippo-like animal that lived in the island’s ancient tropical environment. The find was made by Saskatchewan paleontologist Jaelyn Eberle — now curator of fossil vertebrates at the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History — and was called potential “smoking-gun” evidence showing how a host of prehistoric mammal species arrived in North America. Weststar President Mitchell Adam gave assurances to the board in January that the company would work closely with territorial officials to minimize impacts from the coal mine on Ellesmere Island’s environment, Inuit communities and fossil resources. “We’re not just going to go up there and backhoe this thing and make a mess,” Adam told Canwest News Service at the time. “If there are fossils of any significance — or any musk ox or other wildlife — we’re not going to go up there and disturb it.” But “at the same time,” he added, “if we can outline surface coal, and get some interest of a major company, they’re going to provide jobs and they’re going to ship it out of there — no coal-fired plant, no gasification. You’re just going to dig the coal, put it on a boat and send it to China, Korea or Europe.” But the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, which represents 2,000 of the world’s leading fossil scientists, successfully rallied its members to deluge the review board with objections to Weststar’s plans.

URANIUM – Kivalliq Energy Corp. March 8 unveiled 2010 exploration plans for its Angilak Project in Nunavut, with a focus on the historic Lac Cinquante uranium deposit, Canada’s highest grade uranium deposit outside of the Athabasca Basin. Reported to contain 20.4 million pounds of uranium oxide with grades in excess of 1 percent U3O8 (not National Instrument 43-101 compliant), the historic Lac Cinquante uranium deposit and more than 160 other uranium occurrences on the property comprise Kivalliq’s core asset, the 109,312-hectare, or 270,000-acre, Angilak Project. John Robins, Kivalliq Energy’s president and CEO, said the company’s main goal this year will be to establish a NI 43-101 compliant resource at Lac Cinquante and “to conduct additional exploratory drilling to demonstrate the deposit’s expansion potential.” Construction of a fully winterized field camp to support expanded operations is planned for March and April 2010. Fuel is currently being mobilized to the site and six months of drilling up to 10,000 meters is scheduled to begin in early April. Drilling will target historic resource dimensions and the known mineralized envelope using information from historic core on-site and results from Kivalliq’s highly successful 2009 drill campaign. Exploration drilling will focus on demonstrating the expansion potential at Lac Cinquante where mineralization is open along strike and to depth. In addition, drilling will test high-priority targets along the 9 kilometers, or 5 miles, long Lac Cinquante geophysical trend. The fourth quarter of 2010 will be dedicated to technical and engineering analysis, with a goal of establishing a NI 43-101 compliant mineral resource by early 2011. Kivalliq also plans to continue surface exploration on the Angilak property, which has more than 150 known uranium occurrences, representing several different model types. The summer program will consist of prospecting, sampling and drill target identification.