Feds say no to Kiggavik uranium mine, back Nunavut Impact Review Board – by By Sima Sahar Zerehi (CBC News North – July 26, 2016)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/

Indigenous and Northern Affairs Minister supports the Nunavut Impact Review Board’s decision

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

The review board issued 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.

The French mining company then 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.

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