The proposed $650 million mine, which is currently before regulators, requires lowering the Kennady Lake north of Yellowknife and completely draining parts of it.
De Beers has met with several northern MPs and one senator to gain permission through ministerial authorizations to drain the lake, according to filings under the federal lobbyists’ registry released last week.
But at least one of those MPs denied that the meetings with De Beers revolved around the Gahcho Kue mine.
“We didn’t discuss that at all at our meeting,” said Conservative MP Ryan Leef, who represents neighbouring Yukon.
“We did do a high-level overview of their interest in the North,” he said.
Steven Thomas, De Beers’ CFO, and Tom Ormsby, the director of external affairs, met with Leef and Yukon Senator Dan Lang on October 10 with the help of lobbyist Leo Duguay from Ottawa’s Rothwell Group.
The conversation centered on training skilled workers for mining in the North — even if De Beers has no planned projects in Yukon, said Leef.
De Beers might have targeted the Yukon duo because they offer better access to cabinet decisions than the Northwest Territories’ own NDP MP Dennis Bevington, he said.
“If people see the senator and I as a more direct pipeline to our government… then it absolutely makes sense for them to come directly to us,” Leef said.
Leef and Lang are members of the Conservative Party’s northern caucus.
The permission to drain the lake, affecting a fish habitat, would be granted by Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Keith Ashfield under sections 35 and 36 of the Fisheries Act at the end of the regulatory process.
The sections revolve around projects that affect fish habitat, in this case building diversion dykes and eventually draining the lake in some sections for the duration of the mine’s life cycle.
However, De Beers did not lobby the minister or a public servant from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans directly, according to the lobbyists’ registry.
Bevington, the Northwest Territories’ MP, said he talked to De Beers about linking their project onto the territory’s power grid when he met with their president, Tony Guthrie, on November 21.
“We talked about bringing hydroelectric power into the mine to reduce their electricity costs,” said Bevington. “That’s more of my area.”
Bevington was the author of the Northwest Territories’ energy policy in 2002 and has many contacts in the territorial government.
Developping the mining sector in remote northern communities is often restricted by the high cost of burning diesel.
The nearby Diavik diamond mine, owned by the Rio Tinto Group, is erecting a four-turbine windfarm that will provide 9.2 megawatts of power to offset energy costs.
De Beers is interested in doing the same for Gahcho Kue and Bevington spoke to them about those plans.
He wouldn’t have been able to help De Beers get the ministerial authorizations on fish habitat since the Gahcho Kue mine is in front of regulators, he said.
The mine is regulated by the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board, which is currently waiting for De Beers to respond to information requests from interveners over the proposed mine, said Renita Jenkins, the board’s head of communications.
Once the board completes its review, which is expected by July 2013, federal ministers who have responsibilities that overlap with the project will examine the review and grant any necessary authorizations, said Jenkins.
Calls to De Beers and Minister Ashfield’s office were not returned.
Original Article
Source: iPolitics
Author: James Munson
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