By Evan Careen, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Independent
November 26, 2024
A proposed rare earth element mining project on the Quebec side of the Quebec-Labrador border has some Indigenous people in northern Labrador concerned with the potential impacts on the environment and local wildlife.
Torngat Metals, formerly known as Quest Rare Minerals Ltd., is hoping to set up an open pit mine approximately 235 km northeast of Schefferville, Que., transport the elements via a 160 km seasonal road to Voisey’s Bay, and ship the material from there to a rare earth processing and separation plant to be built in an existing industrial port in Sept-Îles, Que.
The Strange Lake deposit was first discovered by the Iron Ore Company of Canada in 1978 when the company was looking for uranium deposits, but instead discovered what was estimated to be 52 million tonnes of a variety of elements, including some rare earth elements.
Currently, the project is in the early stages of an environmental and impact assessment process jointly through the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC) and the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Previous project plans put the access road through Labrador Inuit Lands, the approximately 15,800 km2 of land defined within the Labrador Inuit Land Claims Agreement, which required Nunatsiavut Government (NG) to hold its own environmental assessment. But Torngat Metals changed the road’s location, abandoning the need for an Inuit-led environmental assessment.
Jim Goudie, Nunatsiavut’s deputy minister of land and natural resources, said the original route for the road through Inuit territory would have triggered an assessment, which was underway when the company altered the route.
Goudie said the community of Nain “was very open and honest with [the company] about the proposed route,” and that it told Torngat Metals the road was “too close to some of our char and salmon rivers and the cultural activities that take place there.”
He said while the new route is still within Nunatsiavut territory and comes within a few hundred metres of Labrador Inuit Lands, NG does not have control in the relevant area. The 2005 Labrador Inuit Land Claims Agreement established two categories of land: the Labrador Inuit Settlement Area and Labrador Inuit Lands. The settlement area consists of 72,520 km2 of land and an adjacent ocean area of 45,690 km2, as well as Torngat Mountains National Park. Labrador Inuit Lands, which is inside the settlement area, consists of 15,800 km2 of Inuit-owned land. The Nunatsiavut Government only has control over development within Labrador Inuit Lands, and Torngat Metals’ proposed road would be in the settlement area, beyond NG’s regulatory reach.
Goudie said while Nunatsiavut Government would still make submissions to the federal and provincial assessments, there is concern that Labrador Inuit won’t have a more direct role.
“It’s a big project. I think there’s a lot of concerns, generally anyway,” he said. “It’s a pretty wildlife sensitive area, so Nunatsiavut beneficiaries are certainly making their concerns known to my minister and to our government, and we will feed that into the other environmental assessment processes.”
Goudie said he’s heard concerns about the potential impact on the George River caribou herd, char, and more general concerns about the impact on geography and the product the mine will be producing.
Labrador is resource-based economy: Goudie
Goudie said he wanted to be clear that Nunatsiavut sees mineral development as not only the present and the past of its land, but also the future.
“We’re a resource-based economy — that’s what we are, that’s what Labrador is — so we have to make sure we’re cognizant of that. We just want to do it right,” he said.
“We’re obviously very concerned about the environment, but we’re open for business. We’re just not going to see large scale projects happen in our territory unless it’s done the right way. We have the authority and power, in most cases, to say yes or no to that, and we don’t mind taking our time.”
Nunatsiavut isn’t the only Indigenous government to express concerns about the project. Both the Innu Nation and the Naskapi Nation of Kawawachikamach in Quebec also expressed concerns through submissions they made in the joint federal and provincial assessment process.
A submission the Naskapi Nation of Kawawachikamach made as part of the joint impact statement guidelines says they are also concerned about the project’s proximity to the calving and post-calving grounds of the George River caribou herd, and the George River itself.
“The George River (Musuwaaw-siipiiy) was a significant fishing ground, gathering area and travel route, and there are undoubtedly archaeological artifacts and burial grounds all along the River,” the nation said in the submission.
“Among other potential impacts, the risk of radioactive elements, Thorium and Uranium leaching into the environment is a major concern for the Nation, and the Proponent should therefore provide valid justification for this project. Additionally, caribou have always been the primary resource harvested by Naskapis and the potential impacts of this project on caribou needs to be presented and examined in great depth.”
The George River caribou herd has declined 99 per cent from its historic high, and an aerial census of the herd conducted by Nunatsiavut Government in July 2024, along with the governments of Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec, shows the population still remains at a vulnerable low with an estimated 8,600 caribou.
The Innu Nation expressed similar concerns in its submission, saying Innu “hold profound cultural, spiritual, and environmental connections to these lands, which are protected by our rights under section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982.”
The Innu Nation gave 20 recommendations related to the joint impact statement guidelines and the Indigenous engagement and participation plan, including that the guidelines should be amended to explicitly require the inclusion of Indigenous knowledge (should Indigenous Nations choose to provide it) in baseline studies, especially concerning land and resource use, species at risk, and areas of cultural importance for the purposes of Newfoundland and Labrador’s assessment of the project.
The Independent reached out to Innu Nation for further comment but was not able to schedule an interview before deadline.
Road moved to minimize impact: company
Christine Burrow, chief marketing officer with Torngat Metals, said the company is listening to stakeholders’ concerns and has been doing its best to mitigate the concerns thus far, including changing the location of the proposed road. She said changing the location of the road was in no way to avoid an environmental assessment with Nunatsiavut Government, but the change was developed in response to concerns they heard from Nain.
“The criteria [in changing the road] was minimizing the impact and working with the topography and finding a solution that met the concerns that were explained to us in a lot of detail,” she said. “When we want to understand concerns, we don’t want to just understand the top levels — we need to understand why and how so that we can figure out a way to mitigate that or change it, to avoid that issue. And that’s what’s happened with the road.”
Burrow said she understands why people would think they had changed the route to avoid the Nunatsiavut assessment, and that the company could have done a better job explaining that to people.
“I can say categorically we did not choose this route to avoid the environmental impact assessment,” she said. “We entered into the discussion with NG and the Government of Canada and the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador and we were so impressed with how they all were willing to collaborate on our file that we could use one impact assessment document for all of them, as long as it met all of their criteria.
“We had no issue with that, but once we weren’t in [Labrador Inuit Lands], it wasn’t a choice for us to participate in the NG process, because it doesn’t apply,” she continued. “Our intention is still to ensure that NG and the community members and everyone else has ample opportunity to engage in the process.”
Burrow said the company understands the importance of partnering with the communities and existing and potential businesses, and that commitment remains as strong as ever. She said she understands the only way Torngat Metals will earn support for the project is by showing they are listening to concerns and will mitigate them as much as possible.
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“We want to be able to demonstrate that we can live up to this idea of doing it the right way, in a way that we can demonstrate we’re minimizing the impacts, we’re addressing concerns and maximizing the benefits,” she said, adding the company plans to hold more consultations with community members going forward. “It’s what the governments expect of us as a proponent, whether it’s the provincial or the Canadian government. I’ve had meetings with different ministers’ teams, and that’s one of the first questions they ask. ‘What’s your engagement with the Indigenous communities impacted by a project? What are you doing in terms of economic reconciliation? How are you partnering? Where are you at with that?’ So we feel a lot of pressure and responsibility to do our part.”