Baffinland Iron Mines believes it will be able to secure funding for an iron ore mine in Nunavut some time this year. President and CEO Gordon McCreary said on Sunday that he is confident of raising $1 billion from a partner for the project to commence.
Mr McCreary was speaking at a company-organised tour of the site at Mary River, 160km south of Pond Inlet on northern Baffin Island. With some economists predicting a rise in iron ore prices of 30% the likelihood of Baffinland securing that sort of investment should be made easier. Mr McCreary, however, was hedging his bets when he commented on the funding that "if, for whatever reason, it doesn't happen in 2010, my job as the CEO of this company is to make sure that we're bridged into 2011, because it will happen in 2011." He added that an investment would have been made by now, had it not been for the global financial crisis that hit the industry in 2008.
Baffinland organised the tour to coincide with the meeting of G7 finance ministers at the weekend although none of the finance ministers attended the tour. One of the landmarks during the tour was a 500-metre-high mountain of jagged rock known as Deposit No. 1, which is believed to contain up to 200 million tonnes of 65% grade iron ore, some of the purest in the world.
The Mary River could create hundreds of jobs for local Inuit. Northern Baffin Island suffers from high unemployment and Nick Arnatsiaq, a company liaison officer from Igloolik said "There are so many children in my community, and you wonder where they are going to work," he said. "Baffinland is [going to] to create answers to that question.”
No comments:
Post a Comment