Company restarting environmental assessment of Grays Bay project

The lead developer of a proposed deepwater port and road that would connect Arctic mineral resources to shipping routes says it is restarting the environmental assessment for the project.

The federal government initially ordered a full environmental review for the Grays Bay port and road project in 2018, but that process has since stalled.

In a Wednesday news release, Inuit-owned mineral explorational company West Kitikmeot Resources Corp, which took over the project in November 2023, said it plans to file a revised proposal with the Nunavut Planning Commission, the first step in restarting the environmental assessment process.

“This process will give all participants the opportunity to carefully assess how the project will co-exist with the wildlife that Inuit harvest and rely on, such as caribou and marine mammals, and all the flora and fauna of our backyard,” West Kitikmeot Resources co-chairman David Omilgoitok said in a statement. “It will also give our company the opportunity to assess and quantify all of the economic and social benefits that we know we can create for Kitikmeot Inuit.”

The company said it aims to complete the environmental assessment in 2027 and, pending a positive decision, begin construction on the project in 2030 with full operations beginning in 2035.

‘More of a marathon than a sprint’

“What you see here today is really us shooting the starter pistol on what ultimately is more of a marathon than a sprint,” Brendan Bell, chief executive officer of West Kitikmeot Resources, told Cabin Radio.

The Canadian Infrastructure Bank is providing up to $3 million to advance pre-construction work on the project including completing the environmental assessment.

The Grays Bay project proposes constructing a deepwater port on the Coronation Gulf. West Kitikmeot Resources said that would assert Inuit and Canadian sovereignty over the Northwest Passage and the port has the potential to “become the most capable deepwater naval facility between Alaska and Greenland.”

The project also proposes an infrastructure corridor that would connect Nunavut’s Kitikmeot region to southern Canada over two phases.

The first phase would see a 230km road constructed from Grays Bay to the end of the Tibbitt to Contwoyto winter road, which currently connects the NWT’s diamond mines to Yellowknife for several months each year. The second phase would involve construction of a 95km road that, when combined with the NWT’s proposed Slave Geological Province Corridor, would provide all-season road access between western Nunavut and southern Canada.

West Kitikmeot Resources said the project will create new opportunities for Kitikmeot beneficiaries including employment and improved access to travel and traditional harvesting. It added the road will improve food security and the cost of living by allowing supplies to reach the area at a lower cost, for a longer season and with greater reliability.

‘Chicken and egg problem’

The company said the project is also the “key to unlocking the critical minerals wealth of the Kitikmeot.”

Bell said there are several “world class deposits” of copper and zinc in the region. But he said there’s a “chicken and egg problem” where investment is required to develop those resources, however, without infrastructure, they’re stranded in the Arctic.

“There’s a lot of work in these deposits still to be done, for sure, but nobody would vote their dollars or their resources to do that work without infrastructure,” he said.

“We think infrastructure is the key that’s been missing that will allow these companies to go and fully develop and explore the area and region and ultimately then get to hopefully positive economic decisions or conclusions.”

Bell said this is the right time for that infrastructure as Canada and its allies recognize the importance of critical minerals and robust supply chains, climate change is opening up shipping routes in the Arctic, and geopolitical events have increased attention to sovereignty and security.

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