Tahltan/Nova mining relations used as example by province

While there are still a good number of dissenters in the area, the agreement on mining resources in the territory of the Tahltan between the First Nation and Nova mining has been hailed as a template of sorts for other regions.

The agreement was discussed at length at a recent mining exhibition and was touted by the province as the way that these negotiations should progress in other parts of the province.

Kevin Krueger the new mining minister in the Gordon Campbell cabinet, took advantage of the developments to proclaim a new era for mining in BC, suggesting that BC is once again a "mining friendly location."

The Daily News featured details of the agreement and its impact on the Tahltan First nation in the Wednesday edition of the paper.

VICTORIA HOLDS UP TAHLTAN DEAL AS A TEMPLATE
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Wednesday, March 07, 2007

The partnership between NovaGold and the Tahltan First Nation is being held up as a model of cooperation by the province of B.C. at the world’s largest mining trade show.

“NovaGold is a model for how First Nations and mining companies can work together,” said Kevin Krueger, Minister of State for Mining, from the Prospectors Development Association Conference (PDAC) in Toronto yesterday.

Krueger was attending the trade show along with Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse, the CEO of NovaGold. The conference brings together 14,000 representatives from the mining industry worldwide.

NovaGold was recently given the green light for its Galore Creek project, a bronze, silver and gold mine located in the traditional territory of the Tahltan First Nation, 150 km north of Stewart.

The project will generate 1,000 jobs during the construction phase and another 500 during the life span of the mine.

Galore Creek is one of the largest undeveloped copper-gold-silver projects worldwide. It will be developed as an open-pit mine at a 65,000 tonne-per-day processing rate throughout a minimum 20-year mine life.

Van Nieuwenhuyse said his company signed a partnership agreement with the Tahltan a year ago. It was a critical step for moving the mine forward.

“It really is a business arrangement between two partners and it is totally separate from treaty negotiations,” said Van Nieuwenhuyse.

The agreement takes a three-pronged approach that includes financial contributions of a million dollars a year to a Tahltan trust fund during the mine’s life span, education and training, and capacity-building in the form of joint ventures, with Tahltan businesses that provide services to the project.

“We have already signed half a dozen agreements with First Nation partners for road building and catering,” he said.

Dan Jepsen, executive director of the Association for Mineral Exploration British Columbia, explained that no matter where mining companies operate, they recognize the need to work with local communities.

“You can’t develop a large industrial project anywhere in the world if the local community and First Nations don’t want them,” he said.

PDAC is the world’s top mining investment trade show. In 2006, the conference attracted more than 14,000 participants from 100 countries in the search for, and development of, new mineral deposits.

The government of B.C. was also a keynote speaker at the event on the issue of aboriginal relations.

Krueger cited a number of recent partnerships other than NovaGold that are attracting attention worldwide. These include Polaris Minerals and its partners, the Kwakiutl and Namgis First Nations, which are developing the Orca Quarry near Port McNeill.