Mine builder looks due North.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: SPECIAL REPORT: MINING

North Bay mine builders Cementation Canada are teaming up with an Inuit development corporation in Canada's Far North to form a new company.

Cementation inked a shareholder agreement in April with the Kitikmeot Corporation of Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, to form Kitikmeot Cementation Mining and Development (KCMD).

The new company was created specifically to market and carry out mine development in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories along with developing a skill set base for Northerners.

The partnership will provide training and eventual job opportunities for the Inuit of the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut, while allowing Cementation to gain a permanent foothold in an area that is flourishing with diamond and gold exploration activity.

The Kitikmeot Corporation is a well-known Inuit development group that has established a number of other businesses that service and support mining companies.

Cementation Canada president Roy Slack becomes KCMD's president with Kitikmeot's Charlie Lyall being named the company's CEO.

Their first project is an extension to the Diavik Diamond Mine near Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.

Cementation was recently awarded a two-year, $20 million contract to do underground work on the currently producing open pit mine.

Cementation will build an underground ramp to extract a bulk sample for continuous exploration of a kimberlite pipe and will build some development headings to further develop the ore body.

Slack says establishing training opportunities for the Kitikmeot Inuit helps his company in the short term but should benefit the entire mining industry in the long run once development work is finished and mine operations begin.

Cementation is working with Diavik and the Kitikmeot Inuit on various options including renovating some existing mine sites to establish them as full-fledged training facilities.

Funding arrangements for training between the parties have yet to be hammered out.

Kitikmeot Cementation will initially employ 40 to 50 people, a combination of experienced miners and supervisors with trainees.

Administrative support will be managed by the Cementation and Kitikmeot Corporations.

"The company itself will be focused on the site work," says Slack.

Cementation is following a nationwide progressive trend of mining and forestry companies working with Native groups to extract natural resources while utilizing local labour.

Slack says in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, mine owners realize it's good...