Feds say no to Kiggavik uranium mine, back Nunavut Impact Review Board

The minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs has reviewed the Nunavut Impact Review Board's final report on the proposedKiggavik uranium mine and agreed with the board: "the project should not proceed at this time."

The review boardissued its final report on the proposed mine near Baker Lake in the spring of 2015.

The report rejected Areva Resource's proposed Kiggavik mine on the grounds that it lacks a definite start date and a development schedule. The board concluded that without this information it was impossible to assess the environmental and social impacts of the mine.

• IN DEPTH INunavut hunters want feds to stay out of uranium mine decision

The French mining companythen wrote to the minister asking that the decision be rejected.

In her July 14 letter, Carolyn Bennett, the minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs,echoes the decision made by the review board, noting the lack of a start date.

"This made it particularly challenging for the board to make a sound and confident assessment of effects on caribou, fish and marine wildlife," Bennett wrote to the board.

The region's hunters and trappers had made numerous presentations to the board stating their concerns over the impact of the project on wildlife.

People in Baker Lake had also expressed fears over the idea of a uranium mine opening near their community.

The $2.1-billion project called for one underground and fouropen-pit mines just west of Baker Lake, and would have provided atleast 400 jobs, many reserved for local Inuit.

But Areva acknowledged that uranium prices are currently so lowit could be up to two decades before construction would actuallybegin.