The Nunavut Impact Review Board (NIRB) has given a green light to the expansion of an open mine pit at Agnico Eagle mine Ltd.’s Meadowbank gold mine near Baker lake.

Vault Pit, located about eight kilometres northeast of Meadowbank, is one of three pits currently being mined on the Kivalliq site. Vault Pit will require significant work, including the dewatering of Phaser lake, an estimated volume of 700,000 cubic metres. Transferring the fish to another body of water is expected to begin later this year, if the project goes ahead.

Agnico Eagle hopes to extract just over 400,000 tonnes of ore from the expansion of the pit, in addition to the 29.8 million tonnes already approved for extraction from the Meadowbank site over its lifetime.

The NIRB’s hearing report and recommendation will be forwarded to the federal minister of indigenous and northern Affairs who will make the final decision on the expansion.

Agnico Eagle hopes to begin mining the new pits in 2017.

Despite the potential risks to Beverly and Bathurst caribou herds, muskoxen, wolverines, bears, seals, birds and fish, archaeological sites, and to the environment, residents of Nunavut communities taking part in the roundtable presentations about the Sabina Back River mine were interested in the expectation for more jobs from the mine.

65 people in the Kitikmeot region are expected to work at the mine during its four-year construction period and 194 will work there during the mine’s 10-year operating life.

Sabina’s plans for Back River include a chain of open pit and underground mines at its Goose property, 400 km south of Cambridge Bay and 520 km north of Yellowknife, which will involve filling, damming or draining lakes and streams, and building a road from the mine to a seasonal port facility and tank farm in Bathurst Inlet.

Community representatives questioned the mining company on its ability to deal with toxic mine tailings, dust emissions and traffic on the ice road, shipping through Bathurst Inlet, fuel storage safety, and fuel spills.

Sabina promised to accommodate caribou by closing down outside operations, like blasting, in its “phased” adaptive-management approach, if caribou cows and calves approach the mine site. But Sabina wouldn’t stop traffic on the winter road or forgo construction in July and August when Beverly caribou migrate through the area.

Sabina still needs to negotiate an Inuit impact and benefits agreement, land tenure and royalty agreements and get a water licence from the Nunavut Water Board and raise money for the mine’s infrastructure.

TMAC Resources Inc. has announced that high-grade gold has been drill intersected at depth below the dyke at the Doris Deposit during the company’s ongoing underground drill program, located in the northern part of the Hope Bay Property in Nunavut. Management believes these results could significantly expand the current five-year mine life at the Doris mine and dramatically affect the global reserves and resources and annual gold production at Hope Bay.

The primary objective of the 2016 underground exploration program is to build on the existing Doris mineral resource base and continue to define mineralization below the diabase dyke. The current drilling program is focused on the Doris North BTD zones, following up on significant mineralization intersected in widely spaced drilling during previous drill programs from surface platforms. TMAC also plans to install and commission its mill and expand the power plant as well as stockpile ore and 55,600 ounces of gold.

The Doris North mine could begin operating in 2017 and see $61.8 million in jobs and contracts over six years.