The Hackett River Mine Project Proposal was originally submitted to the NIRB by Sabina Gold and Silver in 2008 and after screening the NIRB recommended the proposal required a Review. In September 2008 the Minister of Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development referred the proposal to the NIRB for Review. The NIRB issued the Impact Statement Guidelines and is awaiting a draft impact statement.



Modified from the 2008 Project Description: The proposed Hackett River Mine Project (the Project Proposal) is a proposed base metal mine that would include the development of 2 open pits (Main Zone deposit and East Cleaver deposit) and one underground mine (Boot Lake deposit). Ore would be mined and trucked to a processing plant on site to produce zinc, copper, and lead concentrates. Waste material from the mine would be placed on the land in containment areas with tailings deposited under water. The mine and mineral processing plant would operate for about 14 years and employ a total of 225 to 350 people. Only about half of the employees would be on site at any one time because of the fly in/fly out rotational schedule.



The concentrated base metals produced at the Project would be trucked to a port located at Bathurst Inlet using the proposed Bathurst Inlet Port and Road (BIPAR). A 23 kilometre all-weather access road would be constructed to connect the mine with the proposed BIPAR road, and approximately 80 kilometre of the northern portion of the BIPAR road would be used to haul concentrate to the port and consumables back to the mine site. From the port, the concentrate would be shipped to overseas markets by using the shipping route to the east.



The Project Proposal would also include a camp, mineral processing plant, storage areas, maintenance and mechanical repair warehouses, fuel tanks, tailings impoundment, waste rock piles, airstrip, and local site roads. Sabina would also construct a concentrate storage and loading facility at the port site. Most of these facilities would be removed at the end of the mine life. Roads, the airstrip, the tailings impoundment and waste rock piles cannot be removed and would be returned to the land use agreed to at that time. This is determined with regulators and relevant communities.