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| November 06, 2014 --- Vol. 08, No. 45 | November 2014
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Nunavut
IRON – Baffinland Iron Mines Corp., less than two months since startup of mining operations at its 4.2-million-metric-ton Mary River iron mine on Baffin Island, is seeking permission from Nunavut regulators to nearly triple the amount of ore it can mine annually and to extend the schedule for ore shipments from five months of open-water season to up to 10 months a year. Citing low iron prices due to falling demand and plentiful supply as well as stiff international competition, the company is asking to move up to 12 million metric tons of ore a year from Milne Inlet and other changes in the terms and conditions listed in its project certificate. Baffinland filed an application Oct. 29 with the Nunavut Impact Review Board in which it is also seeking an increase to about 150 voyages a year to and from Milne Inlet or Eclipse Sound, which separates Bylot Island from Baffin Island, including fuel and freight vessels; the use of two “self-discharging” ore carriers for the trans-shipment of ore to a huge Cape-class vessel in Eclipse Sound and waters off Greenland; at least one huge Cape-class ore carrier, and other large vessels which would receive trans-shipments of ore from the self-discharging vessels out at sea, in Eclipse Sound and off Greenland; the use of two tugs, floating fuel storage in Eclipse Sound for refueling the tugs and two new ice management vessels at Milne Inlet; a second dock at Milne Inlet; • refueling of vessels at Nuuk, Greenland; a three-fold increase in the number of haul trucks on the Milne Inlet tote road, from the currently allowed 22 to 75. In addition, company still wants to one day build a railway to a port at Steensby Inlet, to the south of the Mary River mine site. But it said it won’t get financing for a port-railway system until about 2020, and it estimates the first ore shipments out of Steensby Inlet would not start until the last three months of 2024. Baffinland also proposes doing an amendment to its final environmental impact statement that reflects eventual annual production of 30 million metric tons of iron ore in the future. That represents more than a 35 percent increase from the 22.2 million metric tons per year that the company is allowed under its current project certificate. Baffinland received permission for the early revenue phase of the project from the Review Board last May. That required amendments to the company’s original project certificate, which Baffinland received in December 2012. The new application will require more amendments to the project certificate, and likely a new round of comments, information sessions and hearings prior to a recommendation from NIRB to the federal government. Baffinland is owned 50-50 by Luxembourg-based steel giant ArcelorMittal and by WW Mines Inc., a private investment firm formerly known as Nunavut Iron Ore Acquisition Inc. The company stockpiled its first load of iron ore at Milne Inlet in September and expects to export its first batch to market in mid-2015.
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