First Nation, mining company announce partnership

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This article was published 19/02/2018 (2257 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A remote Manitoba First Nation has made history by partnering up with a mining company to explore diamond claims staked in the Oxford Lake area.

There’s only an outside chance the deal between Altius Resources Inc. and Manitoba’s Bunibonibee Cree Nation will lead to a new mining source for diamonds, but its chief and the lawyers who mediated the agreement with Altius say the deal breaks ground even if there’s never enough diamonds to open up a mine.

“It is very historic. It is, we believe, the first of its kind in Manitoba. It sets out the conditions for acquiring the First Nation’s consent. Which means the company has acquired it, but has done so on a whole series of protection and compensatory measures that are sufficient for the First Nation,” said Kate Kempton, counsel for the First Nation at the Toronto-based law firm Olthuis, Kleer and Townshend.

“That’s the way business should be done,” Kempton said.

Altius posted a press statement under the First Nation’s letterhead applauding the exploration agreement Friday on its industry website, adding it was “pleased to announce the landmark exploration agreement.”

The statement focused on Bunibonibee Cree Nation and how pleased the First Nation was to promote a “co-operative and mutually respectful relationship related to mineral exploration in Bunibonibee’s traditional territory.”

The statement went on to say the exploration was related to Altius’s Lynx project, the first diamond discovery in Manitoba, announced last year in conjunction with the Manitoba Geological Survey.

“We are supportive of mineral exploration in our territory if a company comes to us in a respectful way to seek our consent and if the exploration is done in a responsible way,” Chief Tim Muskego said in the statement.

“This is good news for Bunibonibee Cree Nation and it is good news for other First Nations in Manitoba who will now be able to follow our lead,” Muskego said.

The statement did not offer a timeline for the exploration and seeing a mine open up is a one-in-10,000 longshot.

Corey Shefman, a Winnipeg associate of the Toronto firm that represents Bunibonibee, said agreements such as this are in keeping with the intent of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

They’re also becoming the gold standard between resource-based industries and Canadian First Nations.

First Nation co-operation is in addition to industry requirements to abide by provincial laws involving claims and requisite permits. The difference now is staking claims also triggers a province’s duty to consult with First Nations when claims are made within traditional First Nations’ territories.

“So it’s very positive when companies like Altius sit down in good faith with First Nations to get the First Nation’s consent to operate on their land. It’s something that’s happening more and more often in other provinces,” Shefman said Monday.

Ontario and British Columbia are the two provinces most familiar with the agreements.

Typically the contents of the deals are confidential, but they most often contain provisions that set out how the mining company will conduct its exploration and when there are impacts — environmental or related to land uses such as hunting, fishing or harvesting — there is some kind of financial compensation.

Kempton, who has experience with similar agreements in other provinces, said the exploratory drill holes are small — just a few inches in diameter — but getting to the sites is the hard part, especially in winter. The work can impact archeological sites and disturb wildlife, sometimes permanently.

“They either have to drive through the bush, sometimes creating access roads. Or they have to fly in by helicopter,” Kempton said.

“They usually create a flat drill pad where the equipment is set up. So there’s clearing of the land. It’s not just a minor drill that goes in. There’s a lot more that happens with exploration. There are often camps set up for the drill crew. Tents, living quarters and all the stuff you need to house people out in the bush in the winter,” Kempton said.

Archeological studies are typically part of these agreements along with land use studies that involve First Nations and their members.

Bunibonibee is the traditional name for the area. Interestingly, it is a Cree word that is believed to refer to three sunken volcanic craters beneath the waters of Oxford Lake. They are part of the seam of Manitoba’s mineral-rich greenstone foundation.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca