N.W.T.'s purchase of Mactung rights gets mixed response in Yukon

Mining analysts and environmental critics in Yukon are stilltrying to make sense of the Northwest Territories' decision to purchase the rights to Mactung, a mineral property recently owned byNorth American Tungsten and locatedalong the Yukon/N.W.T. border.

The N.W.T. government announced last week it had acquired the leasehold interests for the undevelopedMactung property near MacMillan Pass in the Yukon.

The acquisition is part of a complicated dealunder the N.W.T.'s devolution agreement that requiresthe N.W.T.government to "maximize" the value of Mactung while also giving the territorial government the option of handing over authority for North American Tungsten's other property, the recently-shuttered Cantung mine, to the federal government.

The Cantung mine has been under creditor protection since it shut down earlier this year.

"We are certainly pleased to know a government of some sort owns the mine," said Samson Hartland, executive director of the Yukon Chamber of Mines.

"We know thegovernmentsof Yukon and N.W.T. have a vested interest inensuringa proponent would come along and purchase that mine and get it back in production once mineral levels are back at sustainable levels."

But Lewis Rifkind, a mining critic with the Yukon Conservation Society, saidthe acquisitionis troublesome.

"We have now got an environmental regulator the N.W.T. governmentbecoming a junior mining company," Rifkindsaid. "It raises very serious concerns."

"Is there not aninherentconflict of interest when this project eventually gets to environmental assessment?What role will the N.W.T. play?"

The N.W.T. government said in a statement that its acquisitionwould "protect the economic potential of the Mactung resource for future sale."

The Yukon government said it is still examining the the details of the N.W.T.'sacquisition.