The Mary River Project
The Mary River Project ("the Project") consists of nine plus high-grade direct shipping lump and fine iron ore deposits that can be exploited through mining, crushing and screening with no other processing or beneficiation. The Project is a proposed 18 million tonne per annum iron ore mine and associated facilities located on North Baffin Island, in the Qikiqtani Region of Nunavut.
The Project will involve the construction, operation, closure, and reclamation of an open pit mine. The high-grade iron ore will be mined, crushed, screened, transported to the coast and shipped to potential customers and as such, no chemical processing facilities are required for this Project. The Project will operate year round and annual designed output is based upon the current defined mineral reserve at Deposit No. 1.
The Mary River site is located about 160 km south of the community of Pond Inlet (Mittimatalik) and 1,000 km northwest of Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut. Project facilities will be sited in the mine area at Mary River. Site conditions play an important role in the planning and execution of the Project. The area experiences very cold temperatures that average -30º Celsius in the wintertime and 24-hour darkness from November to January. Summers bring 24-hour daylight from May to August, but continued cool to cold conditions. While these conditions are typical of Arctic environments, they will affect planning and logistics relative to most Project activities; but especially to shipping, procurement, logistics, construction, and field investigations.
Update on Project
Since 2004, Baffinland Iron Mines Corporation ("Baffinland") has been engaged in a wide spectrum of activities supporting the development of the Mary River iron ore deposits. These activities have included the delineation of mineral resources and estimation of mineral reserves, extensive metallurgical testing of the iron ore, field engineering data collection, environmental and socio-economic baseline studies, and evaluation of shipping lanes. A 113,000 tonne bulk sample was shipped to two key customers in Europe in 2008. Results of the bulk sample were reported in 2009 and concluded that Baffinland's Mary River lump and fine iron ore is a high quality and desired sale product and blast furnace feed to the world’s steel mills.
In November of 2009, the Nunavut Impact Review Board (“NIRB”) issued guidelines for the preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement (“EIS”) for the Mary River Project. The Draft Environmental Impact Assessment was submitted in January 2011 with an addendum filed on June 2011. The project is currently in the environmental assessment process with an expected release date of Q1 2013.
In March 2009, Baffinland and the Qikiqtani Inuit Association ("the QIA") announced that they had reached a significant milestone in the negotiation of the Inuit Impacts and Benefits Agreement (“IIBA”) as it relates to the Mary River Iron Ore Project. More recently, the QIA and Baffinland made public that work on the draft IIBA has reached a consensus on many primary areas regarding education, training, business opportunities, and finance, and will continue working towards concluding an agreement.
On September 13, 2011, Baffinland submitted an application (project proposal) to the NIRB to undertake some Pre-Development Work ("PDW") in the summer and fall of 2012. This application would allow construction to start almost immediately after being given project approval from the NIRB and the application was submitted pursuant to section 12.10.2(B) of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement.
As part of the on-going Environmental Approvals Process for Baffinland Iron Mines’ proposed operation located at Mary River on North Baffin Island, technical comments on the Draft EIS from the various concerned organizations were submitted to the Nunavut Impact Review Board on October 5, 2011.
Baffinland has been reviewing the comments and recommendations and will prepare its detailed responses – as required by the process – in a formal manner, which will ultimately be contained in its Final EIS.
The Nunavut Impact Review Board ("NIRB") held a technical meeting in Iqaluit from October 18 to 20, 2011 in order facilitate discussions between Baffinland, the regulatory agencies, the QIA and other reviewers/interveners which had submitted technical review comments pertaining to the Draft EIS. The meeting was very effective in working toward resolving outstanding issues as identified in parties’ technical review comments submissions provided to the NIRB.
All parties met, once again, as scheduled, on November 6 to 7 in Igloolik and on November 9 to 10 in Pond Inlet for pre-hearing discussions on the project. Based on input from these meetings, the NIRB will be completing its pre-hearing conference report which is expected to be released to the company and all other stakeholders by December 10, 2011. The company will use this report and commitments outlined from the technical hearings to complete the submission of its Final Environmental Impact Statement ("FEIS"), which Baffinland plans to submit in early 2012. This forms part of a pre-established process schedule.
On November 24, 2011, Baffinland provided notification to the NIRB and other regulatory agencies that it would be scaling back its PDW due to comments received from communities and various regulators on the scope of the proposed undertaken. A revised addendum, which will describe a significantly reduced proposed scope of work for 2012, will be filed to the NIRB and the Nunavut Water Board in mid-December 2011.
Baffinland is committed throughout all phases of the Mary River Project to plan and conduct operations in a safe and environmentally responsible manner, one that is beneficial to all.
Contact Us
Baffinland Iron Mines Corporation
#1016-120 Adelaide Street West
Toronto, Ontario
Canada M5H 1T1
Tel: (416) 364-8820
Fax: (416) 364-0193
Employment Inquiries
careers@baffinland.com
General Inquiries
info@baffinland.com