The Back River Project was assessed by the NIRB from 2012-2017. On June 15, 2016 the NIRB recommended in its decision to the Responsible Ministers that the project should not be allowed to proceed at this time. In January 2017, the then Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs responded to the Board’s decision indicating that the responsible Ministers were referring the report back to the Board for further review or public hearings as the report was not clear with respect to some ecosystemic issues. The NIRB then provided Sabina with an opportunity to submit any updates in an FEIS addendum. On July 18, 2017 the NIRB issued a revised Final Hearing report to the Responsible Ministers, which built on the 2016 Final Hearing Report and provided a summary of all information provided to the Board throughout the Review of the Project, including all information provided to the Board prior to and during both public hearings. The project was approved to proceed on December 19, 2017 subject to the terms and conditions of Project Certificate No.007. This project dashboard contains the original assessment information as well as monitoring information.



The Back River Project consists of the proposed mobilization, construction, operation, closure, reclamation, and post-closure monitoring of a gold mine operation in the Kitikmeot region of Nunavut. The Project is located approximately 400 kilometres (km) southwest of the community of Cambridge Bay, 95 km southeast of the southern end of Bathurst Inlet, and 520 km northeast of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. The Project includes two (2) main development areas with a winter ice road interconnecting the Goose Property with the Marine Laydown Area (MLA) located at Bathurst Inlet.



The Goose Property will comprise of a processing plant, four (4) deposits (Umwelt, Llama, Echo, and Goose Main) to be mined through open and underground mining methods; an all-weather air strip; a camp facility; and associated mining facilities. Ore mined at the Goose Property will be hauled to ore stockpiles located at the Goose Site where the ore would be processed within an ore processing plant (mill) using conventional gravity concentration and cyanidation techniques at approximately 6,000 tonnes of ore per day. A tailings storage facility will be built south-southeast of the Goose Main open pit for tailings deposition during the first two (2) years of production, with tailings then directly deposited into the mined-out Umwelt open pit and later into the mined-out Goose Main open pit for the remaining mine life. The gold doré bars produced at the processing plant will be stored on-site and then transported off-site by aircraft on a semi-weekly basis.



The MLA is located approximately 130 km north-northwest of the Goose Property and is the primary staging area for equipment, material, fuel, and other supplies required for the construction and operation of the Project. The MLA consists of a single barge terminal, laydown areas, a camp facility, and associated storage and maintenance facilities. The Project will be resupplied annually from southern Canada by barge during the open water season. Project materials would then be transported annually from the MLA to the Goose Property using a winter ice road from mid-January to April.



The George Property is an advanced exploration camp located approximately 50 km northwest of Goose Property and currently has four (4) mineral deposits identified for potential future development. Sabina may construct an annual spur road from the winter ice road to the George Property for transportation of supplies to the site.