First Nation wants cash for De Beers mine

The Deninu K'ue First Nation says diamond giantDe Beers owesit money for the Snap Lake Mine operation in the Northwest Territories.

The Deninu K'ue northeast of Fort Resolution on the shoreof Great Slave Lake may be too far away from the mine to have an Impacts Benefit Agreement, or IBA, with the company, but Chief Louis Balsillie saystheFirst Nationstill has the right to compensation.

The Snap Lake Mine is about 220 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife.

Deninu K'ue are the only members of theAkaitcho Dene Treaty 8 First Nations without a Snap Lake IBA, Balsillie said.

De Beers has signed agreements with Yellowknives Dene First Nation in Ndilo, Yellowknives Dene First Nation in Dettah and Lutsel K'e First Nation in Lutsel K'e.

Deninu K'uehas hired a lawyer to try to ensure its positioned for a benefits agreementif De Beers's proposed Gahcho Kue mine is built at Kennady Lake, about 80 kilometres southeast ofthe Snap Lake Mine.

But Balsillie says the First Nation wants its own agreement for Snap Lake as well, including compensation for the two and a half years the mine has been in operation.

"We're poor because we don't get that extra funding from the mining companies, but yet we sit at the same table as everybody else,"he said. "And the other communities get the IBAs, we don't. And that's hurtful because we should be, as a nation, stronger together."

Money split for Ekati mine

Balsillie says the Lutsel K'e First National gives Deninu K'ue $250,000 a year, half the compensation Lutsel K'e receives from BHP Billiton for the Ekati diamond mine, about310 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife.

Linda Vanden Berg, an anthropologist who spent more thantwo years researching the history of Deninu K'ue, says it should be genealogy, not geography, that proves entitlement.

"Lutsel K'e and Deninu K'ue band members are descended from the same ancestors,"she said. "Identical ancestors. How do you say that you're going to do an Impact Benefits Agreementwith one and not the other group?"

De Beers saysmany factors go into the decision about which communities get IBAs, including historical occupancy of the land, treaties, land claims and how the land is used now.

Company spokeswoman Cathie Bolstadsays De Beerstalked with Deninu K'ue during the regulatory process and made it clear the community would notget anIBA.

"The company did not identify any current uses of thelands or resources in the project areaby theDeninu K'ue," she said.