North American Palladium host open house for Sunday Lake exploration in Thunder Bay
By Rick Garrick
THUNDER BAY—A group of Fort William First Nation leaders and citizens called for benefits and environmental monitoring during North American Palladium’s Jan. 28 open house for the Sunday Lake Exploration Property.
“This is the way the future is going to be from now on,” says Fort William Chief Peter Collins. “If we look at the impacts and how it is going to impact our community, consultation is one thing, but accommodation is the second factor to that.”
The development of an Impact Benefit Agreement (IBA) was one of the suggestions raised during the open house, which was held at the Victoria Inn in Thunder Bay. The Sunday Lake Exploration Property is located about 35 kilometres north of Thunder Bay near Dog Lake on the traditional territory of Fort William.
“For us right now, how does the Impact Benefit Agreement have resource driven initiatives for our community for a long term?” Chief Collins says. “That is something that has to be negotiated, and we will continue to do so.”
David Benson, exploration manager with North American Palladium, says the company’s community liaison officer, Brian Ludwigsen, will talk with Fort William about an IBA.
“He said he was going to be talking to Fort William with regards to basically starting the process of an Impact Benefit Agreement,” Benson says. “The [environmental] concerns that were brought up are legitimate concerns, but at this stage, we are actually fully monitoring any impacts. We are very non-impactful at this stage right now, with just basically exploration with diamond drilling. It is a small footprint and we remediate it upon completion, and it will grow back within a few years.”
Chief Collins adds that Fort William citizens need to be involved in the development process on the Sunday Lake exploration site.
“Our folks migrated through there,” Chief Collins says. “They might find one of our ancestors buried there. We want to make sure our folks are on the ground with them in moving this project forward.”
Chief Collins says it was good to see all of the Fort William citizens who brought up their concerns and suggestions during the open house.
“That’s what we need—our folks to speak up and make sure their questions and their concerns are addressed,” Chief Collins says. “Those were great questions and great folks from our community to bring them forward. Hopefully we can work on an IBA and get these agreements in place.”
Fort William Councillor Michele Solomon adds that some of the Fort William citizens at the open house were property owners in the Sunday Lake area.
“Of course, as Fort William [citizens], we have an interest in where this project goes,” Solomon says. “Hopefully, if [North American Palladium] takes anything away from [the open house], they take away that they need to be consulting with the people and be in full disclosure. I’m happy to hear that this is a long process and I am glad that I was able to be here tonight.”
Benson says the exploration stage is the second of five stages in the development of a mine.
“What we’ve [found] so far is some really good indicators of something but we’re not even close to knowing what fully could be there,” Benson says. “What we’re trying to find now is, we’re trying to find the high grade, which we think possibly could be there.”
North American Palladium currently operates the Lac des Iles Mine, which is located about 100 kilometres north of Thunder Bay.