Mary River Mine

in Quebec. The Mary River area has "long been known to Inuit as Nuluujaat, a landmark used to travel through North Baffin Island" in what is now known as Qikiqtani Region, Nunavut. The Mary River property contains four iron ore deposits, numbered 1, 2, 3 and 4 that contain high grade direct shipping iron ore (DSO), with ore grades between 65% and 70%. Because they require no further processing to be used in blast furnaces for steel-making they are priced higher than lower grades. The iron ore body was identified in 1962 by Murray Edmund Watts, who was the regional head of Baffinland predecessor company—British Ungava Explorations Ltd. (Brunex). Watts had sighted Mary River's four massive iron ore deposits—large black circles of 65-70% pure iron ore—from his Cessna airplane. Watts died in 1982, and had never been able to find investors for the project. In 1986, a private company, Baffinland Iron Mines Ltd., held the Mary River Project claims and leases. In 1978, Gordon McCreary submitted his Queen's MBA thesis on the feasibility of developing iron ore in the Mary River area with a focus on transporting the iron ore in Arctic conditions to tidewater by permafrost land, and by sea through packed ice. Richard McCloskey, who became Baffinland's CEO in 2010, had been friends with McCreary in the engineering department at Queen's in 1969. In 2002, McCreary and McCloskey gained a controlling interest in Baffinland. They took it public in 2004, and established Baffinland Iron Mines Corporation. Baffinland then had the funds to complete testing and surveys, Canadian context As of 2009, Canada, with 7.9 billion tons of iron ore reserves, had nearly 42% of the global iron ore resources. The majority of the iron ore in Canada comes from Nunavut's Mary River Mine and from Schefferville, Quebec, which is in the Labrador Trough. In 2017 Canadian iron ore mines produced 49 million tons of iron ore in concentrate pellets and 13.6 million tons of crude steel. Of the 13.6 million tons of steel 7 million was exported, and 43.1 million tons of iron ore was exported at a value of $4.6 billion. Of the iron ore exported 38.5% of the volume was iron ore pellets with a value of $2.3 billion and 61.5% was iron ore concentrates with a value of $2.3 billion. and industrial mining as the "beacon of the future" that would "unlock development possibilities in the North." By 2013, "mineral exploration funds" had begun to "dry up" and new development was being scaled back across Northern Canada. In their 2013 book Northern Canada : history, politics, and memory, the authors said that Baffinland's "massive Mary River project was the most dramatic example—Baffinland "radically curtailed its investment and development plans, cancelling a proposed railway and port development...and scaling back its project investment to $740 million from an initial projection of $4 billion." Iron ore market The iron ore market is volatile and subject to fluctuations, because it is abundant worldwide. The iron ore industry is cyclical. In 2008, shipment figures of iron ore "broke historical records at US$6.2G" and mining investment reached US$2G. Arcelor Mittal Canada—formerly Québec Cartier Mining Company—has a huge Fermont, Quebec iron ore mine complex at Mont-Wright that is similar in scale to the Mary River iron ore project, that it now also co-owns. Construction By 2007, construction of a tote road connecting Mary River mine to Milne Inlet was already underway. Milne Inlet is a shallow inlet that was only ice-free from August to October and opened onto the environmentally sensitive waters of Eclipse Sound and the protected waterways surrounding Bylot Island and Sirmilik National Park, for which Pond Inlet is the gateway hamlet. According to David K. Joyce who visited the site in the summer of 2007, the road was expected to carry hundreds of 200 tonne dump trucks per day, every day, for several decades. By August 2007, the US subprime mortgage crisis had negatively impacted Canadian commercial paper, causing it to suddenly crash. McCreary, who served as the company's CEO from 2004 until March 2010, began to seriously seek out investors. Shipping the ore seemed to become more viable as the Arctic sea ice was shrinking. A 4-year long $170 million commissioned feasibility study, submitted in February 2008, was described by the Canadian Mining Journal as "robust". The report said that the first deposit of iron ore alone would "last between 20 and 34 years" if they shipped between 18 and 30 million tons annually. Because of the purity of the iron ore, there was no processing required so it was direct-shipping. There would be less environmental impact. and a memorandum of understanding was signed in 2009. At that time, Nunavut Tunngavik controlled the resource exploitation of Inuit owned lands. The agreement allowed Baffinland exploration and resource development rights to of Inuit-owned land adjacent to the mine-site. Their initial 2008 development, which was based on the recommendations of 4-year study, anticipated initial production of 18 million tonnes per annum (MT/a) and construction of a CA$1.2b -long cold weather the South Railway, where they would also build a new C$0.7b port facility at a total estimated cost for the project of CA$4.1 billion. The proposal had included a South Railway to an "all-season deep-water port and ship loading facility at Steensby Inlet" where the iron ore would be shipped through the Foxe Basin. Public consultations were held in April 2007 in Pond Inlet, Arctic Bay, Cape Dorset, Clyde River, Igloolik, Hall Beach, and Kimmirut—the hamlets that were "most impacted" by the project. Baffinland hired Fednav, a Canadian company headquartered in Montreal, which was at that time the only company worldwide that was operating in the Canadian Arctic year-round. At the 2009 NIRB public hearings in Igloolik—which is near the proposed marine shipping route from the proposed Steensby Inlet port—the major concern was the impact of the icebreakers operating year-round on marine life in particular, and the environment in general. In March 2010, entered into an exclusivity agreement with ArcelorMittal who were seriously considering the possibility of a transaction with Baffinland. In July Waheed met with Baffinland CEO Richard McCloskey about a phased approach which would include an early stage production of up to two million tonnes of iron ore at Mary River hauled via the "tote road" and shipped from Milne Inlet. In August 2010, after completing his report for Baffinland, Waheed had partnered with Bruce Walter, a Toronto-based "mining entrepreneur and dealmaker", who had spent his "entire career negotiating mergers and acquisitions, particularly in the mining sector" Nunavut Iron Ore is owned by The Energy & Minerals Group, a "private Houston-based fund that makes equity investments of $150 to $400 million in entities with talented, experienced management teams" which is providing the majority of the "equity financing for the Offer". After ArcelorMittal made an offer to purchase Baffinland, Nunavut Iron made a counteroffer. Over a period of about six months, a bidding war took place, resulting in an almost doubling of the offered price. Baffinland discouraged its shareholders from selling to either ArcelorMittal or the hostile bidder Nunavut Iron Ore. In December, McCreary, went to China hoping to finalize a deal to prevent either ArcelorMittal or Nunavut Iron Ore from acquiring the company he had spent decades of his life building. McCreary strongly disagreed with the phase approach that Waheed had suggested, in which the company would begin to haul and iron ore on a tote road from Mary River mine to Milne Inlet where it would be shipped. A January 2011 La Presse article described the Mary River Mine, as "one of the most promising undeveloped iron deposits on the planet" that was "hiding north of Baffin Island, in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Walter described his role in the 2011 "battle" for "control of Baffinland Iron Mines (BIM-T) and its massive Mary River iron ore project." in a high-profile case, by allegedly exploiting insider information that Waheed had gathered while on contract with Baffinland earlier in 2010, to mount a hostile takeover in August. This consisted of mining and shipping iron ore at a rate of 18 Million tonnes per year (Mt/a), constructing the South Railway and port facilities at Steensby Inlet. In 2013, Baffinland requested and received an amendment to its 2012 FIRB certificate for the project's final environmental impact statement (FEIS). The initial 2012 certificate was still in force, allowing Baffinland to transport and ship 18 Mtba through Steensby Inlet if and when the South Railway and port were built. On April 23, Baffinland asked the Nunavut Planning Commission (NPC) and NIRB for a further amendment to the North Baffin Regional Land Use Plan which would allow them to increase production from 4.2 to 6 Mtpa and to allow them haul and ship using the tote road and Milne Inlet port. == Operations ==

Early Revenue Phase On May 28, 2014, the NIRB approved Baffinland's Early Revenue Phase proposal after a review that took place from 2013 to 2014. Baffinland's initial Early Revenue Phase allowed the company to haul and ship up to 4.2 million metric tons per year. In 2018, Baffinland requested and received permission to increase the Early Revenue Phase amount of metric tons they could haul and ship a year to 6 million metric tons. As of 2021, Baffinland is still in its Early Revenue Phase as defined by the NIRB. The board has already extended the period so that the company could "continue... hauling and shipping of up to 6 million tonnes (Mtpa) of iron ore" annually until the end of 2021. It included extending the shipping season to ten months with the shipping season ending on November 15. Their 2014 Phase 2 submission asked for an allowance to use ultra-large dump trucks to convey the iron ore "tote road"—which by then had already been built—to a replacement port at Milne Inlet near Pond Inlet. They requested the doubling of the existing tonnage of 6 million metric tonnes to 12 million metric tonnes of ore to be shipped from Milne Inlet for up to 10 months each year, and the expansion of the Milne Inlet port facilities. Phase 2 expansion also includes plans for an increase of up to 176-ships transitting through the protected waters of Eclipse Sound before reaching the open sea. Freighters now enter and exit Tallurutiup Imanga National Marine Conservation Area—a national marine conservation area on their way to the sea. The iron ore shipping lanes, which go through a narwhal habitat, will threaten this population which is just beginning to return after a hundred years. Radio Canada described Baffinland's request for an amendment to ship from Milne Inlet instead of building the expensive South Railway on permafrost as "contentious". By January 2021, the NIRB confirmed that the final public hearings regarding the Phase 2 proposal, remained on schedule in spite of requests made by the Mittimatalik Hunters and Trappers Organization of Pond Inlet and the Hamlet of Clyde River for postponements, as their southern attorneys could not be physically present with COVID-19 pandemic restrictions in place. In 2021, in Iqaluit and Pond Inlet, Nunavut Impact Review Board public hearings are underway for the proposed expansion of the mine, which would result in an increase in shipping at Milne Inlet, the main port for the mine. Environmental concerns include the impact of 176 ships travelling to and from Milne Inlet annually. Milne Inlet "opens onto and lies within" Tallurutiup Imanga—a Canadian national marine conservation area—and a narwhal habitat. The NIRB public hearings regarding the Phase 2 expansion scheduled for December 2020, were controversial. Among the changes to be discussed was the addition of the North Railway, a railway to the mine's port at Milne Inlet to replace the "tote road". The final public hearings for the NIRB review of Phase 2 expansion are scheduled for March 2021. Phase 2 amendment rejected by NPC When the Nunavut Planning Commission (NPC) announced on April 8, 2015, that BIMC's Phase 2 amended project had not conformed to requirements under the NBRLUP, ==Transportation==

Shipping routes and carriers By 2021, the only operational port was in Milne Inlet with a shipping route that including transitting through protected waters surrounding Bylot Island. Baffinland has plans to develop a second port on Steensby Inlet in the south with a more environmentally sensitive route through Foxe Basin and Davis Strait. A third potential ship route is through the Northwest Passage. In July 2019 the deck cargo ship Biglift Barentsz left Bremerhaven, Germany loaded with a rock crusher for Mary River mine. This ship fits into the heavy-lift ship category. Steensby Inlet port Baffinland's NIRB 2012 certificate authorizes them to develop and use an "all-season deep-water port and ship loading facility" Milne Inlet port facilities However, as iron ore prices declined significantly from 2013 onwards, Baffinland chose the less capital intensive option of developing marine infrastructure at Milne Inlet. By 2015, there a small port had been constructed at Milne Inlet and was ready for the August shipping date. For mining and engineering enthusiasts the innovative technology used to move the ore from the shallow inlet by barges to a freighter waiting off-shore, was welcomed. To the local community, concerns were raised about the use of Milne Inlet for industrial shipping purposes. Milne Inlet has "shallow depths, high tides", and "strong winds" and a short shipping season of about 90 days, from August to mid-October when it freezes over. At the end of the 2018 86-day shipping season on October 17, Baffinland Iron Mines had made 71 trips from Milne Inlet to destination such as "continental Europe, and the UK, including two trips Taiwan and Japan, along the Russian coast. Carrying an "average 71,750 tonnes of iron ore each" they became the largest "shipping program by volume for the Canadian and Scandinavian high Arctic." Bulk carriers In their initial 2008 plans using the Steensby Inlet port, in full operation there would be nine icebreaking freighters each displacing 190,000 tonnes, subcontracted with Fednav Group and filled every two days, shipping 18 million tonnes annually via Foxe Basin and Davis Strait to markets in Europe and elsewhere. She encountered sea ice. According to Splash247 Nordic Bulk Carriers acquired a five-year contract, worth $135 million—with four panamax and two handysize vessels allocated to the contract, carrying 30 loads of ore a year from Baffinland. Air transport There is a runway at the Mary River mine site. Baffinland workers are transported to and from the Mary River mine site by air. Workers based at Milne Inlet use ground transportation to reach the mine site. The mining vehicles were too large to be driven onto the plane, and had to be disassembled before shipment. North Bay's airport was selected because its 10,000-foot main runway was adequate for the "heavy-laden Ilyushin to take off with a large payload of cargo and fuel". Baffinland's initial 2008 plans submitted to regulatory boards included a special cold-weather South Railway line from the mine-site to a newly built port in Steensby Inlet on the south shore of Baffin Island. Baffinland had considered using diesel electric locomotives like this EMD SD70 in their original 2008 plan. In April 2011 the Nunatsiaq News online edition reported the railway was anticipated to cost CA$1.9 billion—just under half the entire CA$4 billion cost of constructing the mine. This was described as more environmentally sensitive than a road route, cheaper to operate over the decades the mine will be in use, and a port in Steensby Inlet would be ice-free for eleven months—months longer than Milne Inlet. Ore would be warehoused at the port during the month the port was locked in ice. The railway route had a higher initial capital cost than any plan to ship ore by truck, before it could ship any ore. the Baffinland mine being about a degree of latitude farther north than the Russian railhead in the Yamal Peninsula. A June 4, 2008 article in the Railway Gazette International described the construction challenges and logistics of a railway built on permafrost. Concerns had been raised about the negative impact the original 2008 special cold-weather railway line the South Railway She described an "uninterrupted alignment of nearly 100 inuksuit" that is parallel to the proposed route for the rail line. Mary River - Milne Inlet tote road In 2010, when Nunavut Iron Ore Acquisition Company and ArcelorMittal were engaged in the bidding war, an alternate proposal to the South Railway cold-weather railway, was under consideration. Between January 2013 and August 2015, the price of ore, per dry metric tonne, dropped from $152 to just over US$50. ==Revenues and expenses==

Baffinland operates on investments, not revenues from iron production and sales, and according to a February 2021 report commissioned by Baffinland by Graeme Clinton for the NIRB assessment, the company has had a huge deficit since 2016. The investors who acquired the company in 2011, were attracted by the quality of the iron ore and the record high prices of iron ore. With the sharp decline in iron ore prices, investors are unwillingly to undertake capital intense projects such as the CA$5.7 billion South Railway. According to the 2021 report, in 2016, BIMC shipped 2.7 million wet metric tons, earned revenues of CA$114 million, and had a "negative free cash flow" of about CA$91.5 million. In 2017, with a shipment of 4 million wet metric tons, they earned revenues of about CA$345 million, and had a record loss of about CA$161 million. In 2018, revenues totalled about CA$315.8 million with a shipment of 5 million wet metric tons and a loss of CA$47.5 million. In 2019, revenues amounted to about CA$10.5 million, shipments were approximately 5.9 million wet metric tons, with negative free cash of CA$10.5 million. Their poor Moody's June 2020 credit rating reflected financial concerns. ==Inuit birthright organizations==

With the creation of Nunavut in 1999, new planning regions were identified and agencies were put into place. The Qikiqtaaluk Region, in northern Baffin Island, Nunavut, is part of the North Baffin Planning Region which is a triangular area in the Arctic Archipelago, that comprises approximately . The region is sparsely populated with most residents living in five hamlets—the largest hamlet, which is also closest to Mary River Mine and the most impacted by the project is Pond Inlet. In June 2000, the North Baffin Regional Land Use Plan, which deals with deals with mineral exploration and production, among many other major area, was approved. It provides strategic direction for land and resource use in the North Baffin Planning Region. According to the Nunavut Planning Commission (NPC), the Nunavut Settlement Area is the "largest jurisdiction in Canada" and is divided into 3 regions with 25 hamlets— the Qikiqtani region in Baffin, Kivalliq and Kitikmeot. By 2016, the population of Nunavut was about 35,944. Inuit represent more than 80% of Nunavut residents. There are three Inuit birthright corporations: the Government of Nunavut, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. (NTI)—the Nunavut land-claim body, and the Qikiqtani Inuit Association (QIA)—formerly known as the Baffin Region Inuit Association—the regional Inuit organization that represents Inuit in the entire Baffin Island region, which includes the north where Mary River Mine is located, and South Baffin where the capital Iqaluit is located. The Qikiqtani Inuit Association is the Designated Inuit Organization (DIO) under the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement (NLCA) responsible for managing Inuit-owned lands in the Qikiqtani Region. The QIA has the authority to negotiate with BIMC on behalf of communities through an Inuit Impact Benefit Agreement (IIBA). The Inuit Impact and Benefit Agreement (IIBA) "outlines benefits Inuit are to receive for Baffinland using Inuit-owned land". The Nunavut Impact Review Board (NIRB)—composed of nine members—"assesses the environmental and socio-economic impacts of development projects and advises the federal and territorial governments on whether they should go ahead". ==Mary River Inuit Impact and Benefit Agreement (IIBA)==

On September 6, 2013, the QIA and Baffinland signed an agreement in which Baffinland "promised to make advance royalty payments to QIA as part of the IIBA. In 2016 the Qikiqtani Inuit Association announced it was planning to go to arbitration over a dispute over royalty payments from Baffinland. The dispute centers around Baffinland's obligation to pay advance royalties, until ore production reaches a threshold that marked the beginning of "intended commercial production". QIA said that, since 2015 Q1 Baffinland has failed to pay $1.25 million quarterly advance royalty payments as agreed upon in the Inuit Impact and Benefit Agreement (IIBA), which "outlines benefits Inuit are to receive for Baffinland using Inuit-owned land". Its position is that "intended commercial production" began in 2015, because it shipped its first ore to market in August 2015. The position of the Qikiqtani Inuit Association is that the threshold for "intended commercial production", which should mark when Baffinland's production reached sixty percent of the production of 18 million tons a year Baffinland agreed to, in its 2012 project certificate agreement with Nunavut. The 2012 project certificate agreement was based on the project design where Baffinland would complete the South Railway carry 18 million tonnes of ore to Steensby Inlet. But in 2013, Baffinlandsaid that a decline in the price of ore caused it to amend the project design and to delay the construction of the South Railway. The three-member arbitration board consists of Thomas R. Berger, a retired judge and former Royal Commissioner of the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry and highly respected by Indigenous Canadians, Jim McCartney and Murray Smith. By 2016, the number of beneficiaries of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement who worked at the Mary River Mine had decreased since IIBA was signed.{{cite news| url= http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/65674baffinland_milne_inlet-mary_river_railway_for_nunavut_iron_mine/ == Opposition ==

Oil leaks in 2008 The CBC interviewed Inuit from the region in April 2008, about their concerns with the plans. Jaypetee Palluq, an Igloolik resident who had been asked to serve on a Baffinland advisory committee, was concerned that the mine's operation would interfere with the traditional hunts for sea mammals, like walrus. He called on Baffinland to "find an alternate shipping route to the mine, regardless of the cost." Paul Quassa, Mayor of Igloolik, also expressed concern, over the effect of freighters on the ice used by the walrus. He said the region was known for its highly prized aged, fermented walrus meat, a valuable export from the region. In June 2008, "about 5,000 litres of jet fuel had "leaked out of a containment bladder in the mine site's tank farm at Milne Inlet. The fuel collected in sand sitting in an impermeable liner designed to keep spills from being released into the environment." In August 2008, the CBC reported that Baffinland had acknowledged three fuel spills. Baffinland acknowledged that the leaks had been found months earlier, but had not been made public. Michael Nadler, the regional director general of the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs speculated that mine officials may not have felt an obligation to publicly report the leaks because they believed there had been no damage. Air strip and tote road blockade (2021) From February 4 to February 11, 2021, a small group of Inuit hunters held a peaceful protest blocking Mary River mine's airstrip and the tote road. The protesters, who called themselves Nuluujaat Land Guardians stood in opposition to the expansion of the mine, concerned for the damage to the environment and their traditional ways of life. About seven hundred employees were stuck at the mine work camp for a week. Judge Susan Cooper granted Baffinland an interlocutory injunction on March 3, forbidding protestors from returning to the mine and from impeding the obstructing the tote road and air strip, and empowering the RCMP to remove them if they did. The injunction will remain in place until a court action filed by Baffinland against the protestors "alleging trespass, nuisance and interference with economic interests" is settled in Nunavut court. == COVID-19 outbreak ==

On May 2, 2021, Baffinland announced that COVID-19 was spreading in its work camp. An outbreak was declared the following day. The outbreak reportedly began with an employee testing positive on April 19. Within two months, the mine became the site of Canada's worst outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant, a highly transmissible variant of the virus that causes COVID-19. As of June 12, 106 people had tested positive for COVID-19 in the mine, with 96 of them testing positive for the Delta variant. The mine ceased operations on May 5, and over 1200 employees that were considered "low risk" began flying home, but many proved to be carrying the virus asymptomatically, and caused it to spread beyond the mine. In Ontario, 127 confirmed or "probable" cases have been linked to the mine, 10 of them of the lineage of the Delta variant; around 120 cases were similarly linked in Alberta, 9 of them with the Delta variant. While cases linked to employees of the mine were also reported in other provinces, since the mine's workforce had not been in contact with any local communities, Nunavut's health department reported no cases linked to the mine outbreak. The mine re-opened in a reduced capacity on May 28, and has reportedly had no new cases since May 29, and no active cases at the site since June 5. In June 2021, the Canadian Red Cross began assisting the mine with contact tracing efforts. == See also ==